'Haram to back DAP' again on Utusan front page

Umno-owned daily Utusan Malaysia continues to highlight the views of Islamic scholars that it is haram (forbidden) for Muslims to support the DAP.

On its front page today Utusan featured a Bernama report saying that leaders of the Young Ulama Secretariat of Malaysia and Pertubuhan Muafakat Sejahtera Masyarakat Malaysia (Muafakat) also share this view. 

Also highlighted is Himpunan Ulama Muda (Ilmu) chairperson Fadlan Mohd Othman, who also concurred and went on to argue that the DAP has been fervently anti-Islam. 

Fadlan said the a verse in the Quranic chapter al Madiah(the Table) states that Muslims must assist one another in matters of the faith and not in matters that lead to enmity and sin.

"Therefore, voting for the DAP goes against this verse. We are still optimistic that PAS will reconsider cooperating with Umno, which is proven to have upheld Islam in Malaysia," Utusan quotes him as saying. 

Professionals in PAS 'causing confusion'

Fadlan, who is an Islamic studies lecturer at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, added that Umno's successes could not be refuted. These are exemplified by the formation of the Islamic Development Department (Jakim), the Islamic finance system and Tabung Haji.

He added that PAS' justification of needing DAP's help to unseat "un-Islamic" Umno was "confusing" and this could be because religious scholars in PAS are sidelined by the stronger "professionals faction".

Yesterday the Malay-language daily front-paged the view of Abdullah Sa'amah, a traditional grassroots learning centre founder, who said it "is forbidden" to support DAP as the party is against the hudud.

However, Abdullah said it was not a problem to support BN partners MIC and the MCA, which is openly anti-hudud, as the two are notkafir harbi (non-believers who are hostile to Islam).

As at yesterday, Utusan also featured a clipping from its archive to show that DAP has a long-held anti-Islamic stance. 

Today, it featured a 1987 clipping quoting DAP chairperson Karpal Singh, voicing his opposition to PAS' proposal to establish an Islamic constitution.