Umno also praying that Guan Eng converts to Islam

Pix/Parpukari: Lim Guan Eng caricatured by Umno blogs.

Courtesy of http://Hartalmsm.wordpress.com/

Guan Eng, now do you see what can happen!? Talking about ‘rope’ and giving your enemies enough of it to hang you with …

Following the path beaten by the Perak mufti, Mahathir (we’re using him one name, like ‘Madonna’) found an easy opening to take a sly dig at LGE while riding on his favourite hobbyhorse of ‘Malay unity’ and exhorting that “Muslims cannot be weak”.

Bernama reported the ex-PM as saying — “The name of the nation’s Muslim leader must be mentioned in Friday sermons in mosques because Islam is the official religion of the country” — during the breaking-of-the-fast at a Perkim function on Tuesday. (Icker-Tee, btw, is a Perkim national council member and the two pious men keep each other in good company.)

Going into his usual scaremongering mode, Mahathir continued: “Don’t think one day it will not be possible for Friday sermons to be mentioning the name of a non-Muslim leader because they are in power and we [Malays] are weak.”

When Utusan frontpaged the story about the mention of Guan Eng’s name in the doa in Penang mosques, Lim Kit Siang condemned the article as the “most irresponsible act in the history of Malaysian journalism”. Lim Sr demanded that both the newspaper and Ahmad Zahid Hamidi who first to raised the ruckus must apologise.

Penang state exco in charge of religious affairs Abdul Malik Abul Kassim and Anwar Ibrahim quickly came to Guan Eng’s defence although Nik Aziz chose to keep mum.

Since then, the Umno has had a field day grinding this grist for the mill.

Insider reported yesterday:

Malacca Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam accused his Penang counterpart of fanning “communal” politics and challenged Lim Guan Eng to state if he planned to become a Muslim, referring to the continued khatib controversy in the island state.

“I want to ask Lim Guan Eng, (do you) want to embrace Islam? Lim Guan Eng, do you agree with the Penang mosque praying for you to enter Islam?”asked Mohd Ali.

“If yes, I will also pray for you,” he told reporters here, straight-faced.

Guan Eng’s political opportunism to win the heart — and vote — of the Malay masses has turned into ‘senjata makan tuan’. You can bet that Umno will work the ground to rile up the grassroots and the ‘citer’ (story) will grow in the telling in the Umno-controlled media and blog propaganda.

The Caliph Umar Abdul Aziz wannabe will now need all the firefighting help he can get from his PAS and PKR Muslim counterparts just to contain the flames fanned by Umno.

If the ‘amar makruf nahi mungkar’ showman did not so overdo his “holier-than-thou” act to begin with, detractors would not be having this fresh prong to attack him on.

LGE is left balancing the tightrope of his own Christian beliefs in private and his very public ‘let’s go Islamic’. He’s really brought it upon himself the risk of being charged a hypocrite.