Make up your mind, Asri tells Jais

Outspoken religious scholar Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin today questioned the Islamic religious authorities' contradictory stand towards places of worship.

On the one hand, said the former Perlis mufti, they discourage Muslims from going to churches out of fear that the former would be influenced by Christians.

On the other hand, they have also made their stance known against the patronising of non-Muslims to Muslim places of worship, Asri (right) noted.

“Are they worried that non-Muslims would be influenced by Islam?” he said in a statement.

Asri's remark did not make an particular references, but it is believed that he was referring to the incident involving DAP's Serdang parliamentarian Teo Nie Ching.

Committee members of Surau Al-Huda were suspended by the Selangor Islamic Affairs Department in August last year after they invited Teo into the surau prayer hall following the handover of a contribution to repair the building.

Teo (below), who had given a brief speech in the hall, was subsequently accused of disrespecting Islam and dressing inappropriately.

Asri, however, questioned whether the religious authorities were in favour of or against non-Muslims becoming exposed to Islam if they were displeased with Muslims in the non-Muslims' places of worship.

“We are getting increasingly confused with the politics of this country, whereby political issues are mixed with religious issues.

“If by going into a church exposes one to Christianity, then entering a masjid should influence the person to Islam. So why are we against it? Are we against them (non-Muslims) being influenced?

“In the end, we are in a tizzy as to who is honest, who is not,” he remarked.

In another statement issued yesterday, Asri challenged Jais to reconcile its actions against Muslims in Malaysia patronising churches with the liberty accorded to Muslims overseas to invite non-Muslims into masjids and distribute to them Islamic literature.

“Maybe they have provisions in the laws to do as they did (at the Damansara Utama Methodist Church), but it has made me wonder what would happen if non-Muslim countries in Thailand, UK, US and Europe took the same steps against the masjids and Islamic centres there.

“We now that Muslims overseas are active proselytising to non-Muslims in Islamic centres and masjids. Non-Muslims are invited to masjids and given Qurans and Islamic literature.

“If the authorities used the laws as we do, surely the masjids would be raided and people prosecuted,” said Asri.

Decrying the repeated use of laws in matters of religion as opposed to persuasion and dialogue, Asri called for the approach towards Islam and matters affecting Muslims to be thoroughly reviewed. - Malaysiakini