KOTA BARU: Kelantan wants the Pakatan Rakyat states to emulate its Islamic City concept where administration is based on religious tenets while promoting goodwill among non-Muslims.

Mentri Besar Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat said that non-Muslims should not be fearful of the Islamic concept as it generated a harmonious lifestyle and curbed vice and crime.

“We want the Pakatan states to copy Kelantan’s form of governance and our concept of Islamic cities.

“Islam stands for the ultimate good so we don’t see any wrong in others copying what we do,” he said after launching the pioneer RM100mil Islamic township in Pasir Tumboh.

“If the Islamic City concept promotes positive and healthy values, I suppose even the non-Muslims would accept it. If they do not want to, then there is nothing we can do but people usually support good things,” he said.

The township project, billed as the gateway to Kota Baru, would be carried out in four phases until 2014. It would represent every aspect of Islamic living and religious requirement.

The city would have a state-of-the-art mosque, a budget hotel with Islamic architecture, apartment blocks, recreational grounds, shop houses and a research centre.

-THE STAR-