Perlis Mufti allegedly fanned racial tensions

MM Online:

Amanah’s Khalid Samad slams Perlis mufti for fanning racial tensions

Former federal minister Khalid Abdul Samad has lambasted the mufti of Perlis for allegedly fanning racial tensions

Picture by Hari Anggara

KUALA LUMPUR, April 1 — Former federal minister Khalid Abdul Samad has lambasted the mufti of Perlis for allegedly fanning racial tensions with the latter’s comments on a recent incident that saw an ethnic Chinese woman arrested for verbally abusing police officers.

In a tweet, the Parti Amanah Negara communications director also questioned Datuk Mohd Asri Zainal Abidin’s motive when the latter had in a social media post suggested if the country should be keeping such people in the country, implying she be stripped of her nationality.

“When the mufti incites racial tensions. There are those who robbed the country’s money but is still accepted by the people because he is a Malay.

“There are those who mocked the police, calling them pigs, but they are accepted because they are Malays. When it comes to Chinese yelling at the police, then he speaks.

“What sort of mufti is this? [He] should be looking to fix [ethnic relations], instead [he] ruins it,” Khalid posted on Twitter, attaching a news report of Mohd Asri’s comments on the incident.

Malaysia is for mamak only, eg Zakir Naik?  

(apabila yang pertuhankan lembu ...)

He sure hates Indians & Hinduism

Asri is a Ketuanan Melayu advocate 

Mohd Asri’s post on his official Instagram account yesterday attracted a flood of comments by his followers, with some users asking for the woman’s nationality be revoked, and others even wishing she gets infected with the Covid-19 virus for questioning the movement control order.

The incident that sparked comments by Mohd Asri had taken place along Persiaran Surian in Kota Damansara yesterday morning during a roadblock conducted by Petaling Jaya district police and the Malaysian Armed Forces.

According to media reports, the woman had been stuck in traffic backlog caused by the roadblock, honking her car horn impatiently for around half an hour, before finally arriving at her apartment situated exactly parallel to the police checks.

Once at the guardhouse of her apartment, while sitting inside her Proton X70, the woman apparently then shouted at the police calling them “stupid idiots”, before entering the development.

Reports later detailed that the woman reappeared at the roadblock several minutes later, this time under instructions of the police, before she was brought to the Damansara police station.

That woman deserves due punishments for her incivility and abuse of law officer(s).

No doubt she must be frustrated by the delays she suffered, but the whole nation and Malaysian society have been under undue stressful and perilous pressure, and the cops have been just doing their duties to help minimise the dangers to society including that woman. Thus she has been the stupid one, not the police.

That she is a Chinese in that incident is just coincidental as there have been Malays and Indians who have committed the same if not worse incivilities towards police.

It's really disappointing that a State Mufti would capitalise on the incident's ethnic angle to raise racial tensions when, as Khalid Samad said, Dr Asri should be improving the harmony of ethnic relations instead of aggravating it.

Once I had admired and respected Dr Asri very much, but over the years I observe him showing his ethnic credentials more and more rather than what he once did, his intellectual peaceful Islamic credentials.

I notice him starting down this path when he began to criticise Hindu practices (eg. coconut breaking during Thaipusam), then Indians, and condemning them for being hostile towards Zakir Naik. He even composed a poem against Hindus and Hinduism.

To which Dr P Ramasamy, Penang DCM II said:“It is quite sad to know that the Mufti of Perlis, Mohd Asri Zainal Abidin, known for his progressive views on Islam, has stooped so low to undermine Hinduism by characterising it as a religion that “worships” cows, imposes Sati requirements on women to jump into the funeral pyre of their husbands and maintains its nefarious caste system".

“I am not sure who 'educated' him on Hinduism, but there are some indications that he could have gathered all the negatives about the religion from his 'Mahaguru' Zakir Naik."

“Just because some Indian groups opposed Zakir Naik for indulging in hate mongering, Mohd Asri decided to attack Hinduism and its practices.”

"What Asri has said about Hinduism and its practices are not only far fetched, but not even remotely related to Hinduism."

“In other words, he sought to engage in a mindless 'essentialism' by reducing the majestic religion to few elements."

In 2017, FMT reported on the matter of Dr Asri's anti-Hinduism poem (extracts):

Malay Studies expert rejects Asri’s explanation on poem

(l) Mohd Faizal Musa (r) Dr Asri Zainul

PETALING JAYA: Perlis mufti Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin’s explanation for posting his “Friday morning poem”, saying it was about the Indian government’s policy against the slaughtering of cows, can only be accepted if it was made at an appropriate time and context.

But not when there is an ongoing debate and controversy surrounding Indian preacher Zakir Naik, said Mohd Faizal Musa, a Research Fellow at University Kebangsaan Malaysia’s Malay World and Civilisation Institute.

“He (Asri) can, should, and would look like a champion if the criticism was made when our nation’s leaders were in India, which according to Asri in his poem, is a ‘tyrannical government that worships fire and is a sati devotee’,” Faizal told FMT.

Prime Minister Najib Razak made an official visit to India from March 30 to April 5, where he and his counterpart Narendra Modi agreed to strengthen their strategic partnership.

Faizal, who is better known by his pen name Faisal Tehrani, and who was a recipient of the National Arts Award, was commenting on Asri’s defence of his poem which was uploaded on his Facebook page last Friday.

The poem had among others, slammed a group who “worships cows” and practises the caste system, for attacking “our preacher”.

Asri didn’t name the preacher, but it came in the midst of protests by Hindu groups against the government’s protection of Naik, who is wanted by Indian authorities for alleged money laundering and for “promoting hatred”.

Asri’s poem was removed from his Facebook page yesterday, following criticism and police reports lodged against the mufti, who had time and time again come to the defence of Naik.

Asri, however, stood by his poem, saying it had nothing to do with Naik, but was merely about the Modi-led Indian government’s policy, which he claimed had acted cruelly against the Muslims for slaughtering cows, an animal which is considered sacred by the Hindus.

Faizal said the excuse couldn’t be accepted, citing a United Nation’s document published in 2013 which had given a guideline on how a statement can be considered as promoting racial and religious hatred.

Under the UN’s 2013 Rabat Plan of Action, a speech must be viewed from its social and political context, in line with the time it was disseminated, to evaluate whether it was meant to instil hatred.

And according to Faizal, Asri’s poem didn’t meet the requirements. He said if the poem was really meant for Modi and not the Hindus in general, then it would have been more appropriate if it was made when Modi visited Malaysia for the officiating of the Torana Gate in Little India, Brickfields, in Kuala Lumpur in November 2015.

“Asri had two opportunities, as mentioned above, to criticise Modi at the appropriate time, or as stated in the 2013 Rabat Plan of Action, in the appropriate context,” he said further to FMT.

“If the poem was made during the two occasions, then the 2013 Rabat Plan of Action defined it as a ‘freedom of speech’, or merely a criticism from an individual. That should be respected, not condemned.

“If we analyse the context, as stated in the 2013 Rabat Plan of Action, we can suggest that Asri’s ‘Friday poem’ was not part of the permissible right to freedom of speech,” Faizal said.

Faizal then compared Asri’s poem to a similar criticism made by constitutional expert Shad Saleem Faruqi, which was reported by the media but was not met with the same hostility.

Shad Saleem Faruqi 

He was referring to Faruqi’s statement made at a forum at Universiti Malaya in May 2015, on the use of religion by Modi’s party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and how bloodshed can occur due to the actions of irresponsible people who place a cow’s head in a temple, or a pig’s head in a mosque.

“But he wasn’t criticised by the public, especially by the Hindus here. This is because his statement was made in the right context,” Faizal added.

Podah Asri, you have become a disgrace. As Khalid Samad asked, just what kind of a Mufti are you?