KUALA LUMPUR: The government will enact a Religious and Racial Hatred Act to protect Islam and other religions in the country against slurs and insults.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of religious affair Datuk Dr Mujahid Yusof Rawa said that the bill would safeguard religious and ethnic harmony among the people in the country.
“The government intends to put forward a bill on the Religious and Racial Hatred Act, not just to deal with incidences when Islam is insulted but also when non-Muslim faiths are insulted.
“This will ensure that insults and any acts of disparaging any religion is forbidden,"he said during the Ministers' Question Time in the Dewan Rakyat today.
He was answering an additional question from Datuk Seri Ismail Mohamed Said (BN-Kuala Krau) over what steps the government would take to combat attacks against Islam on Facebook and other social media.
The additional question was asked during Mujahid’s reply to the main question by Ismail as to what extent the government would assure the sanctity of Islam in accordance with Article 3 (1) of the Federal Constitution.