KUCHING, Dec 11 ― The Barisan Nasional (BN) Sarawak government appears to have removed a statement asserting Islam as the Borneo state’s official religion from its website, days after it was raised in the recent sitting of the state legislative assembly here.

A check of the website by Malay Mail Online today showed the statement “The official religion in Sarawak is Islam” is now missing without any explanation on the governmental website.

The website is maintained by the Sarawak Chief Minister’s Office.

Sarawak PKR leader Baru Bian had raised the issue of Islam being listed as the state’s official religion in the legislative assembly last Wednesday.

The Ba’kelalan assemblyman pointed out the statement “The official religion in Sarawak is Islam” was published in the state government’s website guide to “Visitors”, under the heading “Travel Tips”.

Baru said such a statement was misleading because Sarawak does not have any official religion.

The opposition lawmaker said he had first highlighted the issue in the May 2012 sitting of the legislative assembly, but no action was taken; adding that this year, he then wrote to the state secretary on July 24 to point out the erroneous assertion and asked for it to be amended.