KUALA LUMPUR: Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has denied a report in Utusan Malaysia Tuesday (24 Feb) that the state had established an inter-faith council last year and has threatened to sue the paper.

"These are lies against me, DAP and also Islam. We have no such council and we don’t even know where they got their source from," he told reporters in Parliament Tuesday.

The DAP secretary-general said his lawyers to file a defamation suit against the Malay daily for carrying the untrue report and also wanted a public apology.

“I have lost my patience about this. They have been pushing me to the wall all this while,” said Lim, who is also Bagan MP.

Utusan Malaysia Tuesday published a front-page entitled “DAP HINA ISLAM? (DAP insults Islam?)” stating that the DAP-run government in Penang was insulting Islam with the setting-up of the inter-faith council.

President of the Majlis Agama Islam Negeri Pulau Pinang (MAINPP), Shabudin Yahaya said efforts to put Islam on the same level as other religions is an insult to Islam and such efforts must be stopped.

Shabudin, who is also an Umno state assemblyperson for Permatang Berangan, said the setting-up of the council was an insult to Islam.

The daily said that the inter-faith council was headed by Lim and three Malay members as well.

Lim also described the report as a smear campaign tactic in the wake of the upcoming by-elections in Bukit Gantang, Perak and Bukit Selambau, Kedah on 7 April.

“Such a report will become a tool to attack us in the future especially when the two by-elections are just around the corner,” he said.

“I can stress now that such a council had never existed and if it did take place, I would know about it because it is my government (administration),” said Lim, adding that such “disgusting” reporting should never exist in Malaysia. (MySinchew)