PAS will always win when ‘mufti’ and professors of Islam are silent

PAS will always win when ‘mufti’ and professors of Islam are silent

By Dr Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi





IN ALL the socio-political issues framed in religion brought up by PAS – the Bon Odori festival, the Oktoberfest celebration, the alcohol-mall issue, the stewardess tudung issue and now the Sarawak casino issue – my reading is that PAS has won the “moral ground” in each and every one of them.


Even though Malaysians may heave a sigh of relief when good Muslims like the Sarawak tourism minister or the Sultan of Selangor put the matters at rest with their wise statements of nation-building and multi-racial and multi-faith inclusiveness that defines Malaysia, I know the PAS leadership is smiling broadly.

The main reason why I say PAS has won the “moral ground” with its Malay ground base supporters is that their issues were laced with Quranic verses and religious justification presented eloquently by ustaz (religious teacher) or clerics of Islam who are also politicians.


On the contrary, those who are countering them are non-Muslim politicians, Muslim politicians who are not ustaz, NGO (non-governmental organisation) like Sisters in Islam (SIS) who do not wear the tudung and are not ustazah and even Sultans who are themselves not ustaz.

So, five points for PAS and zero score for Malaysians on the Islamic moral scale. I have always written strongly to say that firstly, PAS is now a major contender and not a kampung or pondok (hut) political party.

Unless we create a policy where no religious ideology should be made the basis for a political party, then we Malaysians must deal with PAS in a respectable way.

Secondly, PAS carries the moral high ground with its politicians being “scholars” in Islam even though of the lowest kind. To the Malay public, nevertheless, a Malay with a serban (head gear), a jubah (robe), has janggut (beard), can recite Quran flawlessly and knows Arabic, he is a “scholar in Islam”.


Passive Muslim scholars

My issue in this article is to highlight the need for our salaried muftis and “scholars in Islam” in the Department of Religious Affairs as well as highly-paid Islamic scholars in 20 public universities to play a role in countering the narrative of a conservative Islam interested only in the betterment and safety of Muslims alone and not the nation of Malaysia with people of many faiths and cultures.



Why, first of all, are the mufti silent when PAS raises issues which it claims are Islamic issues that are important for the Muslim society? For instance, when PAS president Tan Sri Hadi Awang accused non-Muslims as prone to corruption because of their natural immorality and evil tendency, he used the Qur’an and the Hadith of the Prophet to justify his statements.

The same thing was done in accusing Pakatan Harapan (PH) of working with the evil DAP or making friends with enemies of Islam in the form of Jews and Christians. Prime Minister (PM) Anwar Ibrahim has launched the Madani Islam which is the answer to Islam as a force of nation-building and global co-existence using the Quran and the Hadith as the basis for its approach and philosophy.

But I noticed that even JAKIM has not answered his call when I read the text from the Friday sermons. I have also noticed that not many academics except those aligned with Anwar from ABIM who are mostly not ustaz have answered his Madani call.

Prof Dr Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi


Public university leadership and the professors of Islam are mostly silent on the Madani idea. This is where PAS will score many points every time it raises any and every issue it says concerns the Muslim community.


Easy win for PAS

The silence from the mufti office, the ustaz from the religious departments and the professors of Islamic studies is simply deafening! Where are their vo? Where are their answers?

If Malay politicians who are not ustaz answer the issues raised by PAS, if non-Muslim politicians answer the questions raised by PAS, if NGOs like ABIM and IKRAM whose members are non-ustaz answer the concerns of PAS, if SIS or non-tudung Muslim women answer PAS – instead of mufti or professors of Islamic scholarship who are ustaz – we should just declare PAS the winner and give them the winning trophy.

PAS will win hands down every time.

If all institutions of Islam are silent when PAS brings up any issue – and if all the professors stay silent inside their lush offices and seminar rooms – we might as well change the name Malaysia to Dar-al-Malazi or the Abode of Malaysians in Islamic Arabic.

I said that Sabah and Sarawak will have the same Islamic extremism problem in 10 years. I was wrong. With the Mazu statue and the casino issues, the peninsular problems of Islamic extremism have made it to the shores of the two nations across South China Sea.

To the people of Sabah and Sarawak, welcome back to Dar-al-Malazi! So, my final question is why are we paying the salaries of mufti, ustaz officials and professors in Islam for?



Prof Dr Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi is Professor of Architecture at a local university and his writing reflects his own personal opinion entirely. This opinion editorial first appeared in Sin Chew Daily (English version) under the same headline.