Asri apologises to 'Hindus who misunderstood poem'

Perlis mufti Asri Zainul Abidin today apologised to non-Muslims, particularly those of the Hindu faith, who "misunderstood" the meaning of his controversial poem.

"I sincerely apologise to the non-Muslims involved in this issue, especially those of Hindu faith who have misunderstood the meaning of my poem.

"I never meant for those of the Hindu faith in general to be involved in this issue," he said in a statement today.

He also plans to hold a dialogue with non-Muslims soon.

"My commitment is to justice for all mankind, regardless of religion," he said.

Asri's poem referred to the worship of cows, the practice of caste and the now-defunct widow-burning practices, as a response to detractors of "our preacher".

This is believed to be a reference to Indian national Zakir Naik, who is sought by Indian authorities in a money-laundering investigation, and who has been granted permanent residency in Malaysia.

However, Asri claimed the poem is not about Hinduism, but about India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"The word in my poem is 'mempertuhankan' (to deitify or treat as god) and not 'menyembah' (to worship) as amended by some parties.

"In Bahasa Melayu, 'mempertuhankan' means to excessively glorify, like saying someone 'mempertuhankan nafsu' is to mean he puts his desires before anything else.

"In this respect, in India, people are more willing to torture or kill human beings because of the cow," he said.

The poem, first published on his Facebook page, has been removed.

According to the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka the word 'mempertuhankan' is defined as "believing something is god" or "to deitify or to glorify something excessively that one treats it as higher than god".- Mkini