Himpun vows to expose more apostasy cases

The Himpun coalition will reveal more evidence of apostasy at a rally scheduled from 9am to 12pm next Saturday at the Paroi Indoor Stadium in Seremban.

During a press conference today in Seremban, Himpun secretary-general Aminuddin Yahaya said people were waving off their claims as baseless.

"Actually, we have evidence and facts to back our claims on reported apostasy incidents," he said.

When Malaysiakini asked him to reveal some of the evidence, Aminuddin (right) said he would do so at the Jan 7 rally.

When questioned whether Himpun had lodged any report to the religious authorities or the police regarding former Selangor PAS chief Hasan Ali's claim that Christian organisations had sent their missionaries into mosques in jubah (robes) and performed the Zuhur prayer with Muslims to get close to the congregation, he replied in the negative.

Still soldiering on collecting evidence

"Hasan has already formed a Unit Selamatkan Akidah (Faith Rehabilitation Unit, or USA) and is collecting evidence.

"There are Muslim-based NGOs already conducting faith rehabilitation programmes and taking the necessary actions.

"We are concentrating on rallies. For the detailed action, we leave to the NGOs," he said.

On why previously Himpun focused just on Selangor, giving the impression that the apostasy happened only in states run by the Pakatan Rakyat, his reply was that his coalition was not aligned to any political party.

"The states we choose to organise this sort of rallies are the states where apostasy cases had been reported.

"In Negeri Sembilan, 183 applications for apostasy had been reported over the past 10 years and 38 of which had been approved.

"There was even a case reported in Terengganu recently, which is a Muslim-majority state. So accusing us of just targeting Selangor because it is run by Pakatan is not correct.

"We started this Himpun rally in Selangor. Then in Perak and now in Negeri Sembilan.

"We will go to other states as well in the next two months," said Aminuddin.

For next week's rally, the invited speakers include among others, Hasan, Himpun chairman Azmi Abdul Hamid, Himpun deputy chairman Abdullah Zaik Abdul Rahman and former Negeri Sembilan mufti Murtadza Ahmad.

Aminuddin stressed that their group was not against Christians, they were simply defending Islam.