Kit Siang: If I'm 'anti-Islam' for criticising Hadi, then so must be Saudi for putting him on terror list

KUALA LUMPUR, June 1 — DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang today denied allegations made by PAS president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang of him being “anti-Islam” and “promoting Islamophobia”.

Comparing himself to Saudi Arabia which had once listed Hadi in its terror list, Lim asserted that criticising the Marang MP does not equate to being “anti-Islam”.

“I may be anti-Hadi unless he changes his ways but to call me anti-Islam and promoting Islamophobia is like calling Saudi Arabia anti-Islam and promoting Islamophobia for banning Hadi and describing him as akin to a terrorist.

“I still remember Hadi slamming Saudi Arabia five years ago as among the Gulf states like Egypt, the UAE and Bahrain, for believing more in Zionists than in Allah and Islam when the quartet of Gulf States added the IUMS, the International Islamic Council, to its terror list,” he said in a statement here.

In 2017, Saudi and the three countries listed IUMS — of which Hadi was its president — in its terror list for allegedly “working to promote terrorism through the exploitation of Islamic discourse”.

Despite that, Lim said he does not consider Hadi a terrorist but merely believed that the PAS politician may suffer from "intellectual inadequacies" for misconstruing his suggestion for state-federal cooperation for an official invite to join the Anwar administration.

“His silence to the three proposals I put to him shows that he is not prepared to be a responsible, honest and respected Islamic leader, the conditions I had laid down for PAS to join the Anwar unity government,” he said.

In response to Hadi's recent attack accusing the DAP of advocating secularism through the “Malaysian Malaysia” concept, Lim pointed out that Malaysia's first and third prime ministers, Tunku Abdul Rahman and Tun Hussein Onn, had emphasised that Malaysia should not be transformed into an Islamic state.

He reiterated that his position is aligned with the views of these respected leaders.

“I do not want to be a person who makes wild and preposterous allegations and, when challenged, was unable to present an iota of evidence to substantiate the allegations or self-invite to join a government,” he said.

Yesterday, Hadi continued his constant attack against DAP, claiming that non-Muslims’ well-being will be threatened if they “cross the line” in their behaviour towards Muslims in Malaysia.

He also said that DAP has been nothing but a nuisance to the country ever since the party was founded and has “gone too far”.