It denies knowledge of Pasukan Bertindak Anti Bible Bahasa Melayu.

Anisah Shukry, FMT

Perkasa today distanced itself from this Sunday’s Bible burning in Butterworth, saying it had no knowledge of the group behind it.

“Perkasa knows nothing of the group that intends to burn Bibles this Jan 27. That is not Perkasa’s programme,” Perkasa secretary-general Syed Hasan Syed Ali told FMT.

The programme, planned by a group calling itself Pasukan Bertindak Anti Bible Bahasa Melayu, comes hot on the heels of Perkasa president Ibrahim Ali’s controversial call for Jawi-scripted Malay Bibles with the word “Allah” to be burned.

The previously unknown group refers to Sunday’s programme as a “festival”. Its flyer reads: “Our children and grandchildren will end up being apostates if you want to wait for our impotent government to act.

“To Muslims who have copies of al-Kitab, bring them over to make our Bible-burning session merrier.”

Commenting on this, Syed Hasan said: “Perkasa will leave this so-called Malay Bible-burning event to the police.”

Syed Hasan also said Perkasa was worried that physical clashes would erupt over news reports of the alleged distribution of Jawi-scripted Bibles containing the word “Allah” to Muslim pupils in Penang.

“For the record,” he added, “Perkasa’s online membership has surged dramatically in the past three days.”

He claimed he had received many phone calls over the alleged distribution of the controversial Bibles and said this was why his group was stern against those attempting to proselytize among Muslims.

But Penang police chief Abdul Rahim Hanafi told national news agency Bernama that all the Bibles were in the English language and did not contain the word “Allah”.