There was pandemonium in the Dewan Rakyat last Tuesday after Ahmad Marzuk Shaary - the PAS MP whose luxury car was caught breaking traffic rules blatantly last July - had reprimanded DAP's Howard Lee for quoting Quranic verses in a viral video last month.
Though the matter was thought to have been laid to rest after the Ipoh Timor MP had issued an apology, apparently the PAS MP was still not satisfied.
According to a recent report in FMT Marzuk had raised the matter in parliament while debating the supply bill; he further stated that only scholars and muftis can interpret and explain Quranic verses.
He added: "I would like to ask where and from whom Ipoh Timor acquired this level of expertise to be considered a scholar?"
Clearly annoyed with the "personal attack" while the House was debating a totally different subject, the DAP MP interjected by raising Standing Order 36(6) which states that no member of the House shall impute improper motives to any other member.
Lee went on to say that it was unfair to quote his name with negative assumptions; religious affairs minister Na'im Mokhtar, who had personally met Lee to discuss the matter, had confirmed that the DAP MP did not interpret the Quran but had merely recited the translation of one of its verses.
Deputy Speaker Ramly Nor who was presiding over the afternoon session then issued warnings to Marzuk, Lee and four other MPs for disrupting the debate on the supply bill; he is also expected to make a decision soon as to whether there was a violation of Standing Order 36(6).
In fact, last month NST had reported that the Ipoh Timur member of parliament Howard Lee had apologised for the controversy over a Quranic verse which he had cited in a viral video.
Lee had issued the apology in a press conference at the Ipoh Timur community centre after having his statement recorded at the Perak police headquarters.
He added that he had apologised following the advice from Umno secretary-general Datuk Dr Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki who had also asked him not to repeat such self-interpretations of verses from the Quran.
The DAP MP had further clarified that he was only able to give his statement to police after returning from the 78th United Nations General Assembly in New York, United States.
Lee had found himself caught in the centre of a storm after several PAS leaders had portrayed him as trying to stir provocation and for being disrespectful to Islam for allegedly distorting the interpretation of verse 59 of Surah An-Nisa.
For the record, Lee had claimed that he did not interpret the verse himself but merely quoted an interpretation by a religious figure; apparently, he had also consulted a religious expert before citing the verse in the viral video.
Incidentally, later during the same session, Marzuk had also brought up DAP's “secular nation” agenda and accused it of planning to remove the special privileges of the Malays as mentioned in the party constitution.
Meanwhile, it is still not clear why the PAS MP had suddenly raised those two seemingly "irrelevant" issues when the House was busy debating another important matter.
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