He said BN’s exploitation of race and religion resulted in the near wipeout of the coalition in Selangor.

“They should ask themselves what they have done to uphold Islam in all the tens of years they were in power before being rejected by the people,” he told a news conference at the PKR Sungai Kandis operations room.

The by-election on Aug 4 follows the death of incumbent assemblyman Mat Shuhaimi Shafiei.

BN only managed to win four seats in Selangor in the May polls, while PH captured 51. PAS took the remaining one.

Lokman has told Sungai Kandis voters that it would be difficult for Zawawi to defend the position of the Malays, Islam and the Malay rulers even with his religious educational background.

He said Zawawi would have to work within the system as a member of the ruling party, and would find it hard to rectify shortcomings in the system.

“But I am outside the system, so if the government is wrong, I will dare to point it out,” he said.

In response, Zawawi said the Pakatan Harapan state government had never neglected the welfare and interests of Muslims in Selangor.

He said large allocations were provided annually to build and improve houses of worship, including 25 new mosques built between 2015 and 2018.

“In the same period, the state religious department (Jais) received allocations totalling RM208.824 million to build and maintain mosques,” he added.

Zawawi said the state government provided RM16 million in 2016 to build three tahfiz schools.

In the same year, he said, RM52 million was allocated to develop two tahfiz science centres in Pandan and Bagan Terap, and RM3.5 million in scholarships to benefit 998 students.

He said salaries of all primary religious school teachers were also raised from RM745 to RM1,500.