Daily Express Subscriber
Sign in to your account.

Kuala Lumpur: Bersatu will not compromise with anyone who undermines Islam, but the party will maintain a “rational stand” concerning the “Allah” socks issue, says its secretary-general, Hamzah Zainudin.

Hamzah said Bersatu’s stand when the controversy surfaced was to urge the authorities to act swiftly and sternly against the responsible parties.

“We will continue to fight for this, don’t trivialise the matter as something that can be easily manipulated.

“However, when one group of people is already enraged, adding fuel would only cause a bigger fire. If they are angry over something that can be acted on (by the authorities), then let the authorities take action.

“Why add fuel to the fire to cause a blaze that would only end up destroying other things? We shouldn’t be doing so to the point of causing accidents to unrelated parties,” the opposition leader said in an interview with FMT.

The controversy began on March 13 when photographs of socks with the word “Allah” at a KK Mart outlet in Bandar Sunway were circulated on social media.

The company issued an immediate apology. Its founder and director have claimed trial to intentionally wounding the religious feelings of Muslims by selling the socks. The company also sued the vendor that supplied the socks for alleged sabotage.

Umno Youth chief Dr Akmal Saleh has spearheaded a campaign for a nationwide boycott of the convenience store chain, and remained defiant despite calls for him to put a stop to it.

While the Yang di-Pertuan Agong issued a “final warning” yesterday against taking advantage of the controversy, Akmal reportedly said the king did not explicitly say that the KK Mart boycott should be stopped.

PAS is not taking part in the boycott, saying the issue will die down if action is taken by the authorities. The Islamic party said the KK Mart boycott was not similar to boycotting entities allegedly linked to Israel, amid the conflict in Gaza.