PAS central committee member Mohd Zuhdi Marzuki has brought the tone down on his comments in a WhatsApp chat that have been spread on the social and mass media and condemned by a number of people as "racist and extremist".

Saying that this was an impersonal and purely academic opinion, Zuhdi in a long note on his Facebook page stressed that he was more an academician than a politician, and gave plenty of examples from his past showing him to be a very tolerant and moderate minded Muslim.

Among these are his defence of DAP when it came under slander for the May 13, 1969 race riots and his liberal stand on the use of the term ‘Allah’ by Christians.

Zuhdi said the second paragraph of the chat message quoted to condemn him was not part of any conversation but just an “imaginary phrasing” he framed about what some PAS members might have felt about DAP and some other issues of concern to Pakatan Rakyat.

He has been trashed by PKR and DAP MPs, among others, after a part of his WhatsApp chat with other PAS leaders was exposed to the media.

The message appeared to be outlining a political scenario whereby PAS could cooperate with rival Umno in Selangor, so that DAP and the non-Muslim squabbles could be easily marginalised and swatted away.

'Worded in an imaginative and sarcastic way'

“While I was presenting the scenario analysis, I have constantly clarified that the language used in the message did not represent my views but the views of certain parties inside PAS that have been bitter towards DAP and several other issues,”  Zuhdi wrote.

He said the second paragraph was in fact an “imaginary phrasing” of the conversation that some PAS members might have secretly felt.

“The second paragraph was worded in an ‘imaginative’ and ‘sarcastic’ way, where it represents the type of things that could be said by PAS members with a grudge against DAP and other parties over issues such as the use of ‘Allah’ by non-Muslims, the apostate issue and others.” he explained.

Zuhdi, who is also PAS research centre operations director, said the leaked messages have been taken out of context and exploited by some irresponsible party members.

“If I leak the entire conversation, which comprises more than 115 pages, only then will the people understand the whole scenario... unfortunately, I cannot, on party principles, expose the full content of the group chat,” Zuhdi added.

He also expressed his displeasure towards fellow Pakatan Rakyat members such as Rafizi Ramli (of PKR, left ), Tony Pua (DAP) and Anthony Loke (DAP) for labelling him a “racist” or “extremist” without first reasoning out the situation.

“It is saddening to know that when the message was leaked, my own colleagues, students and those who have shared the same stage, such as Rafizi Ramli and Anthony Loke, were quick to judge me as a ‘racist’ or ‘extremist’,” lamented Zuhdi.

Although it is not known who leaked the WhatsApp chat messages to the media, Zuhdi said he suspects ill-intention behind the move.

He noted that some quarters probably wanted to get PAS to punish him for not backing PKR's ‘Kajang Move’ and also to indirectly pressure PAS to accept a change in the Selangor menteri besar.

The Kajang Move was aimed at replacing Selangor Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim with the wife of PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim and some top PAS leaders have since come out openly to reject it.