Minister urges govt to hunt down atheist group

KUALA LUMPUR: Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim wants the government to "hunt" the group who allegedly joined the Kuala Lumpur Atheist Club.
The minister also urged those who have information about the group to come forward and provide the details to the relevant parties.
"This nation has religion. We have Islam, and other religions such as Christianity, Buddhism, the teachings of Confucius, Hinduism and many more. But the Federal Constitution does not recognise people without religion.
"The Constitution stated that Islam is the religion of the federation and those of other religions can practice their faith peacefully. There is no provision on atheism, so atheism is against the Constitution and the basic human rights here," Shahidan said during a press conference held at parliament here.
Shahidan added that the group's activities must be curbed in order to put a stop to the spread of atheism in the country.
"I suggest we hunt them down and we urge those who can help us to identify these groups to provide us with the information.
"We need to restore the faith back in them, especially for Muslims. Actually they don't really want to be an atheist, but they lack knowledge about religion and that is why they are easily swayed to the new age teaching," he said.
Atheist Republic, a Canada-based non-profit organisation, often stages meet-ups in larger cities, last week it posted a picture on Facebook of people attending the Atheist Republic Consulate of Kuala Lumpur annual meeting.
The post said the gathering "was such a blast!" and shows a room full of people smiling with their arms in the air.
"Atheists from all walks of life came to meet one another, some for the very first time … each sharing their stories and forming new friendships that hopefully last a lifetime! We rock!" it read.
The posting went viral and received a lot of negative feedback from social media users in the country.