Akmal Calls For Public Apology Over Priest Joke At UMNO Assembly

MELAKA, Sept 14 (Bernama) -- UMNO Youth chief Datuk Dr Akmal Saleh has called on the individual alleged to have made a joke about Catholic priests at the party's general assembly recently to issue a public apology to all Malaysians.

Akmal, who is also Melaka Rural Development, Agriculture and Food Security Committee chairman, said religion should not be made a subject of jokes by anyone.

“Imagine if the joke about a priest had instead been about an imam and Muslims, surely we would also be angry.

“If we are angry when something like that is done to us, then we should not do the same to others... so I urge this individual to apologise publicly to all Malaysians,” he said in a post on Facebook today.

He also stressed that the joke made by the individual did not in any way reflect UMNO’s position and was the individual’s personal opinion.

Earlier, Tuaran MP Datuk Seri Wilfred Madius Tangau called on a speaker at the general assembly to issue an unconditional public apology to Catholics and the Christian community as a whole.

Madius described the party division chief’s remarks involving the Holy Scriptures, Catholic priests and nuns as inappropriate and offensive, while stressing that matters relating to religion should not be turned into sexually suggestive jokes or ridiculed.

-- BERNAMA