We are not anti-Islam, Bar Council

By Debra Chong
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 19 — The Bar Council, which has come under attack for organising a forum on conversion and Islam 10 days ago, emphatically denied PKR MP Zulkifli Nordin’s accusation that it is anti-Islam.

Zulkifli, who was one of the leaders in the rowdy protest against the forum that day, told the press yesterday that he was considering proposing a motion in Parliament to sanction the Bar Council for its anti-Islam stand.

“He was a former council member, you know. And everyone knows our stance. Our more than 50-year history will attest to the fact that we are a multi-racial, multi-religious organisation consisting of members from all religions,” said Bar Council president Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan.

She went on to say that his description of events that took place that day was not accurate. “What I would say is, the film is on YouTube... what took place... and it speaks volumes for itself. There are also many witnesses. You can ask any one of them.

“As far as the motion is concerned, of course he is free to say what he wants, but nothing could be further from the truth. We believe in the freedom of all to practise their religious beliefs and we are the last to be anti any religion.

“Nothing said in the forum can be remotely called anti-Islamic. In fact, half the participants were Muslim. What Dr Mehrun Siraj said will attest to this and shows you there was nothing un-Islamic about that forum. People like her will definitely not sit in a forum like that if it’s going to be anti-Islam.

“The forum was essentially to discuss the jurisdictional conflict between the syariah court and the civil court. The other thing to note is that it has been reported that Pas wants to dialogue with us and we are ready to do that.”

A past president of the Bar Council, Datuk Kuthubul Zaman Bukhari, reaffirmed Ambiga’s position about where the council stands on matters relating to all religions, not just Islam.

“The Bar Council has never been anti-Islam. I was president of the Bar Council for two years, I’ve been a member of the Bar Council for the last 14 years and I am still a council member now, and for sure, being a Muslim, I can consider myself a staunch Muslim as well. The Bar Council has never taken any stand that is anti-Islam. The Bar Council has never taken any position against any racial, religious, ideology and so on. The Bar Council is free from all this,” he said.

“I take issue with the fact that he says the Bar Council did not seek representatives from Islam, I think he’s wrong and the facts speak for themselves. There should be an ex-syariah judge there, someone from Ikim as well, or at least, they wanted to come but subsequently pulled out.

“I totally disagree with the stand taken by Zulkifli. Everybody knows what the Bar Council is about.”

Meanwhile, Lim Chee Wee, the Bar Council secretary whom Zulkifli said had invited him into the auditorium to verify that the forum had indeed ended, had a very different account of what happened that day.

“Ambiga had actually consented to invite him up to discuss whether the session should end early or continue. So Ambiga actually invited him into the building to have that discussion with her.

“Downstairs, essentially what happened was, he basically told us, if we didn’t stop the meeting at 10 o’clock, he would invite the more hostile and aggressive of the demonstrators to storm the building. That was how he put it.

“So, under those circumstances, we had no choice but to invite four representatives to go upstairs to witness and confirm that the forum would end at 10 o’clock. We were under threat of people storming the forum. That’s Number One.

“Number Two... you saw their behaviour when they were in the auditorium. You saw the way they didn’t sit down, they stood in front of all the speakers and they started shouting, coming close to 10 o’clock or thereabouts, to ask us to close the forum. And then there was the unpleasant exchange of things between Muslim and Muslim. He shouted at Mehrun.

“And the one thing I hope you can say in The Malaysian Insider is this: nobody, nobody can actually quote any speaker at the forum for criticising Islam, who challenged the position of Islam in our Federal Constitution, who challenged Article 121(i). Nobody was critical of any religion.

“What people spoke about was the effect of a spouse or parent who converted and then they were left abandoned.”

He said the Bar Council was particularly concerned that some of the newspapers played up the perception that the council was anti-Islam. “The Pas Research Centre and Dr Mehrun Siraj herself said we should have an open dialogue so as to educate Muslims and non-Muslims.”