PKR’s controversial Kulim Bandar Baru member of parliament today again defended his action to protest against the Bar Council’s forum on ‘Conversion to Islam’ organised by the latter at its premises in Kuala Lumpur on Aug 9.

"Those who organised the forum are non-Muslims and how can they talk about something like that?

This has hurt the feelings of the country’s Muslim population," said Zulkifli Noordin in Parliament.

He stood up to say this when his fellow Pakatan Rakyat member, DAP’s Chong Eng, brought up the matter of the Bar Council forum in her speech during the second reading of the Education Amendment Bill.

muslim lawyers meeting 130706 zulkifli nordin Calling Chong Eng a ‘racist’, Zulkifli claimed Chong had tried to portray the Muslims that protested at the Bar Council forum as aggressive and irrational.

"I am upset by the statement made by Bukit Mertajam as she is trying to portray the protestors as aggressive people and I was involved directly in the protest," said Zulkifli ( left ).

Zulkifli and around 300 protesters had gathered at the Bar Council headquarters two weeks ago to vigorously protest what they felt was an incendiary dialogue, with impact on Islam and its role.

The protest and the barging in of several protesters into the venue followed by name-calling forced the Bar Council to bring the event to a close just after an hour upon advice from the police. The forum began at 9am.

Action pending

Zulkifli subsequently dropped from public view but re-emerged on Monday in Parliament where he met with PKR chief whip Azmin Ali to explain his actions .

Following this, Azmin said that he accepted Zulkifli's explanation in good faith.

"He is prepared to explain to the party about his actions. I have accepted his explanation," said Azmin.

Today, however, PKR deputy president Dr Syed Husin Ali said action would be taken against Zulkifli in due course.

"As far as the party's disciplinary process is concerned, the matter is in abeyance rather than resolved," he said.

Chong in her response to Zulkifli’s riling stressed the importance of dialogue between non- Muslims and Muslims pertaining to issues on religion.

She said that Zulkiflis’s view on the non-Muslims discussing Islam was merely a different interpretation on the matter and that there must be space for different points of view to be exchanged.

‘Labeled as anti-Islam’

"How can we reconcile the differences if we don’t talk about it? It would enhance democracy if the matter can be discussed openly," said Chong.

chong eng "Every time we talk about Islam we are labeled as anti-Islam ( right ).

"I have never heard of labels like anti-Christianity or anti-Buddhism before when those subjects are being discussed," said Chong.

Chong then continued with her speech telling the House that she wanted to move on to other topics that were more relevant to the Education Amendment Bill.