Sarawak PAS commissioner Jofri Jaraiee has called on his party president to hold an inter-faith dialogue to clarify his derogatory statement on Christianity and missionaries in the state, ahead of the expected polls in March.
Blaming the media for possible distortion to sensationalise the sensitive issue, Jofri said the best way to settle the matter was through a face-to-face meeting.
“People care about issues affecting their daily life. Religion is not a big issue unless somebody makes it into an issue,” he told The Malaysian Insider.
He, however stressed that his suggestion was not to salvage PAS in the coming state polls, but to verify the source of information according to Muslim teaching.
“This will not affect us much as the seats we are going to contest are Muslim- majority seats, with only a small number of Christians.
PAS plans to contest in more than 10 seats in the coming state polls, mostly Muslim-majority seats and a few urban seats traditionally contested by DAP.
Jofri said he had passed this message to the party’s central committee last weekend for his party president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang to hold an inter-faith dialogue anywhere in the country to resolve the issue of disagreement between religion and races harmoniously.
“Maybe the information is incomplete or distorted by certain parties so what is to be conveyed to the public is inaccurate and misleading. Every problem can be solved when a meeting is held or through dialogue,” Jofri said.
Hadi’s recent remarks that Christian missionaries spread their faith in Sabah and Sarawak after being rejected in the West were published in the PAS organ, Harakah. Hadi had also said that Christian missionaries used unethical means to spread their faith, such as giving money and other incentives.
His remarks had drawn flaks from Borneo states political leaders and Christian leaders calling him an extremist who should be banned from entering the state.