Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein has confirmed that there was no evidence to support claims of a conspiracy by Christian groups to make the religion the official religion of Malaysia.
The Sun newspaper reported that this was revealed by Jelutong MP Jeff Ooi in a press conference in Georgetown yesterday, citing a written answer in Parliament by the minister.
According to Ooi, who was accused of being part of the plot also allegedly involving prominent pastors in Penang, the answer was to a question by Kulim Bandar Baru MP Zulkifli Noordin.
According to the daily’s report, Ooi disclosed that the case has been classified as NFA (no further action) by the deputy public prosecutor after the investigation papers were referred to the Attorney-General’s Chambers.
The issue arose when blogger Zakhir Mohamad, who blogs under the name Big Dog, posted on his blog a hearsay account of such a plan to make Christianity the official religion and to make a Christian the prime minister.
The claim was front-paged by Malay daily Utusan Malaysia on May 7, resulting in police quizzing eight pastors on the matter.
Then DAP member Mohamed Razali, who also attended the dinner, also came forward to lodge a police report.
Following this, Hishammuddin said that there was “some basis” to the ‘Christian conspiracy’ claim.
The Utusan report claimed that several pastors and Ooi were involved in plotting this during a dinner held in conjunction with a conference organised by the National Evangelical Christian Fellowship, Global Day of Prayer, Marketplace Penang and Penang Pastors Fellowship on May 5 and 6.
The groups and the MP have since refuted the claim.