Church can put up cross, says Selangor MB

Selangor Menteri Besar Mohamed Azmin Ali says people in the state must respect each other’s faiths. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, April 23, 2015.

The church at the centre of Sunday's Taman Medan protest can put up its cross, said Selangor Menteri Besar Mohamed Azmin Ali.

He said the cross was a sacred symbol to the Christians and people of other faiths would have to respect that.

"Yes, it is not a problem. In fact, the question is, why was the church forced to remove it?

"This is because the cross is a sacred symbol to the Christian community and society has to respect that," he told reporters at the state secretariat building in Shah Alam today.

Azmin also said stern action must be taken against those who protested against the church, as the action was unacceptable.

He said in Selangor, citizens of different faiths must respect each other.

On Sunday, some 50 Taman Medan residents staged a protest in front of the church, demanding that the cross displayed on the building be removed.

The protesters said that the cross was a challenge to Islam and would sway the faith of the youth in the Muslim-majority neighbourhood.

Yesterday, Taman Lindungan Jaya Umno branch chief Datuk Abdullah Abu Bakar, who is the elder brother of Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar, was questioned by the police for almost three hours over the protest.

Meanwhile, when asked about PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang's insistence that hudud laws be implemented for the people's peace and safety, Azmin brushed aside the remark.

The PKR deputy president said there were many other matters involving the people’s security aside from hudud.

"We are talking of strengthening the economy for Malaysians, welfare and education system. Those are real security issues that we face as citizens of this country," Azmin said.

Hadi said yesterday in a dialogue entitled "Hudud dari kaca mata Hadi" (Hudud from Hadi's perspective) in Shah Alam that the reason DAP and PKR would not support hudud was because they feared losing votes.

The Islamist party leader said he concluded that many in the opposition pact were against hudud because they feared losing support from voters.

- TMI