Abim President Mohamad Raimi Abd Rahim commended the university’s admission of wrong doing, but said more had to be done to determine if the slides were taken out of context or were ill-intended, the Malay Mail Online (MMO) reported today.
He said the judgement against the slides was based on a photo, but the context of its presentation was unknown.
“Right now judgement against it is based on a photo, but there are possibilities it could have been something the lecturer was refuting, so it has to be subjected to a transparent investigation,” he was quoted as saying by the news portal.
Raimi said Abim believed that any false understanding of a religion must be corrected as it could “breed prejudice and negative behaviours” between multi-religious communities.
“In this case, the management of UTM has recognised that there is basis for action to be taken and we welcome the immediate response because it shows the management know that this is a sensitive issue,” MMO quoted him as saying.
Abim is reportedly the first Muslim group to speak up on the matter.
On Tuesday, UTM vice-chancellor Prof Dr Wahid Omar apologised for the slides and said the university was currently conducting a thorough investigation into this incident.
Prior to that, the controversial slides had gone viral after it made false claims about the Hindu and Sikh communities, leading an outcry from the public, non-governmental organisations as well as political leaders on both sides of the divide.
Meanwhile, in India, the official government news agency, Press Trust of India, has also covered the issue, reporting on the reaction from various Malaysian Indian groups to the slides and the apology from UTM.