Tread carefully when handling religious cases — Abdul Karim

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KUCHING: Politicians who are lawyers by profession should be more careful when handling cases especially when they involved religions.

Minister of Tourism, Art, Culture, Youth and Sport Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said this is because religion is a sensitive issue in the society.

“Lawyers who are politicians should be more sensitive in handling any cases including those involving religion. Regardless of whether they are Christian or Muslim they should be more sensitive, and we all should learn from past incidents,’ he said when met by reporters here yesterday.

He was responding to a question on the ruckus after the hearing of the apostasy cases by the Federal Court on Tuesday as well as action to be taken by Association of Churches Sarawak which lodged a police report on the heckling of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kuching Archbishop Simon Poh at the court complex on Tuesday.

He said that he had been informed days before the apostasy case, there was a viral message inviting members of the public to come to the court.

“When it virals, so many people will turn up … same goes to the native customary right (NCR) case proceeding,” he said.

“During the NCR cases trial, some of the villagers come as far as from Sibu, Bintulu or Baram. Personally, this should not be encouraged,” he added.

Karim noted that there were no physical attack and the situation was brought under control.

‘We could not stop anyone on Facebook and other social media to say that the Archbishop was attacked but this is a good lesson for all,” he stressed.

Commenting on the Facebook posting of a murder threat on State PKR chairman Baru Bian, who was representing the four individuals in the apostasy case, Abdul Karim said it was not right.

“Whoever the individual, I hope he is not serious and don’t get too emotional and threaten others. Malaysia Communication and Multimedia Commission and other relevant authority should be more alert and to ensure such similar incidents are handled well.”