Name Khalid Samad Occupation Politician Role Politician | Religion Sunni Islam Education University of Leeds Website www.khalidsamad.com Siblings Shahrir Abdul Samad | |
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Political party Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, National Trust Party | ||
Khalid Abdul Samad (born 14 August 1957) is a Malaysian politician. He is a member of the Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) and the Member of Parliament for Shah Alam, Selangor.
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He was a columnist at The Malaysian Insider and a prominent member of the moderate wing of Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) before they split to set up the new Amanah party.
He is the younger brother of Shahrir Abdul Samad; the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) of Barisan Nasional (BN) Member of Parliament for Johor Bahru, Johor and former Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs.
Early life
Khalid was born in Kota Bharu, Kelantan in 1957.
He graduated with a degree in Fuel and Energy Engineering from Leeds University in 1979 and then worked for Petronas.
Political career
Khalid joined PAS in 1983 and became a central committee member from 1987 to 1993. In 1987, he was detained for nine months under the Internal Security Act (ISA) during Operation Lalang crackdown.
He had unsuccessfully contested the Kuala Krai, Arau, Sri Gading and Shah Alam parliamentary seats before winning the Shah Alam seat in the 2008 general election.
In 2010, Khalid became engaged in a debate with fellow opposition (later pro-government independent) Member of Parliament Zulkifli Nordin over the use of the word "Allah" by non-Muslims. After Khalid stated that he opposed a Selangor law that prohibited non-Muslims from using the word "Allah", Zulkifli lodged a police report accusing Khalid of sedition. Zulkifi, a Kedah MP, moved to Selangor to run against Khalid in the 2013 election as a Barisan Nasional candidate, but Khalid was re-elected with an increased margin.
In August 2014, Khalid was charged under Section 4 of the Sedition Act for allegedly questioning the executive powers of the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) in relation to the confiscation of Malay-language and Iban-language bibles. Khalid was among several other opposition politicians as well as non-politicians arrested in the 2014 Malaysian sedition dragnet.