Committee never issued anti-Bersih fatwa

The National Fatwa Committee has never issued an edict to ban the street demonstration last April 28 as claimed by the opposition.

Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mashitah Ibrahim said the committee had on the other hand issued a media advisory following a meeting held by the committee early last month.

"The members unanimously agreed that an advisory on the participation of Muslims in the demonstrations deemed destructive and disastrous to the country be issued through the media," she said, responding to the adjournment speech by Ahmad Kasim (PKR-Kuala Kedah) on the edict to ban the street demonstration allegedly issued by the committee.

Mashitah (right) further stressed that the committee members appointed by the Conference of Rulers had no political interests other than that related to Islam and the ummah.
   
"So the advice by the fatwa committee was free from any influence and not bound by any individual or organisational interests," she clarified.

Mashitah said the contents of the media advisory read among others: "As Muslims we should be grateful for the peace, harmony and unity that we have enjoyed and inherited for so long; as a country that practices democracy there is a lot of avenues for discussion without compromising the security of the country.

"Hence those who participated in the demonstrations must realise and repent because such acts were not a teaching of Islam, and Islam never teaches Muslims to resort to chaos and destroying the country for a particular agenda".

- Bernama