Does writing ABC make us Christians, mufti weighs in on khat debate

Perlis mufti Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin said learning khat (Jawi calligraphy) is not an attempt at Islamisation, because Jawi is related to the Bahasa Malaysia and not the religion.

If the logic of those who argue against khat on the basis of Islamisation is applied, he said Romanised writing would make everyone Christians instead.

“If we write in the Romanised form, we become Christians... Hebrew was once the language of the holy books. Greek was once the main language for the Bible.

“In Arab countries, the Bible (is written in Arabic). Rock singers sing in Arabic... All those songs and books which oppose Islam among the Arabs, what language are they written in? Arabic,” he added.

Asri was responding to a question raised during a lecture in Kangar last night.

The mufti believes that the polemic surrounding the introduction of khat in the Bahasa Malaysia syllabus for Standard 4 pupils is related to non-Muslims' phobia towards Islam.

He said the issue arose due to the misunderstanding that khat is an attempt at Islamisation.

“It is like the songkok. In India, (non-Muslims) wear (something similar). The prophet (Muhammad) never wore a songkok.

“The baju Melayu does not represent religion, it is a Malay attire. Jawi writing is the writing of the Malays, but some of them (non-Muslims) think it is an Islamisation attempt. This is wrong.

“I feel there is some form of hatred towards anything that is seen to be related to Islam...” he added.

Following backlash to the proposal to make the learning of khat compulsory, Education Minister Maszlee Malik yesterday said teachers would be given the power to decide on how to teach it.

In his media statement, the minister said: “Pengenalan tulisan khat ini dilaksanakan secara pilihan dengan guru diberikan kuasa untuk membuat keputusan mengenai kaedah pelaksananya di bilik darjah masing-masing. (The introduction of khat would be implemented in an optional manner and teachers would be given the power to decide how to implement it in their respective classrooms).

Although the minister did not clarify the term “optional” when quizzed later, Malaysiakini understands that teachers would be allowed to decide whether or not to teach khat.

Maszlee also said the khat lessons would be cut down to three pages instead of the initial six.- Mkini