Harakahdaily

KUALA LUMPUR, June 28: After revelations that the forty so-called 'Muslim scholars' who the media said joined UMNO last Friday had been cheated, four more individuals among the group have denied they had joined UMNO.


Instead, they said they were tricked to attend the event with prime minister Najib Razak last Friday.

Hosni Mubarak Abdul Hamid (pic) said he and three of his friends, Mohd Fakhruzzaman, 37, Mohd Akram An-Nazilin, 27 and Mohd Jalaluddin Tahir, 26 had never joined the party.

“Then, it was announced to the media, these were 40 young ulamas who join UMNO – true some did join UMNO however many clearly had been tricked based on their facial expression,” he told a Pakatan Youth event hosted by Shah Alam PAS Youth in Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Shah Alam, last night.

Also present were PAS information chief Idris Ahmad, Shah Alam member of parliament Khalid Samad, PAS Youth information chief Suhaizan Kayat, DAP youth chief Anthony Loke and Selangor state Exco Dr Yaakob Sapari.

According to Hosni, they were taken to a building next to The Mall shopping complex neighbouring the UMNO headquarters in Kuala Lumpur. Upon exiting an escalator, without realising they were already in the PWTC building, they were greeted by camera flashes and forced to line-up to welcome Najib’s arrival.

Hosni, who studied at Selangor's Markas Tahfiz Al-Quran Wal Qiraat in 2003, graduated from the Al-Albayt University in Jordan in 2009.

In addition, Hosni expressed his regret over UMNO’s trickery as the incident had created a negative public perception towards his reputation as an Islamic scholar.

Meanwhile, commenting on the incident, Idris Ahmad said PAS was not bothered about the number of Muslim scholars joining UMNO as he believed the people could evaluate both PAS and UMNO's Islamic credentials.

Yesterday, Wahab Abdullah, a teacher in Jejawi, denied he had joined UMNO despite being present in the press conference. He claimed that he was there to meet Najib over other matters but was tricked into joining UMNO instead by former Perlis MB, Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim.

Last Friday, it was widely reported in the mainstream media that 40 'Muslim scholars' had joined UMNO, however the number was far less than the 100 people anticipated by UMNO, which excluded former Perlis mufti Dr Asri Zainul Abidin, who did not show up despite earlier speculation.