Islamic group files legal challenge against fatwa

Hizbut Tahrir is seeking an order from the shariah court quashing the fatwa that it is a deviant group.

PETALING JAYA: A Muslim group is seeking to quash a fatwa (edict) that it is deviant.

Hizbut Tahrir also wants the Selangor mufti and religious authorities to apologise to it.

A spokesman for the group, Abdul Hakim @ Ramizu Othman, filed a judicial review at the Shah Alam Shariah High Court today.

The judicial review seeks an order from the shariah court for the retraction of the fatwa dated Sept 17, 2015.

The fatwa was gazetted under Section 47 of the state’s Islamic Administration Enactment 2003.

The judicial review named Selangor mufti Tamyes Abd Wahid, the fatwa committee, Selangor Islamic Religious Council (MAIS), and the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (JAIS) as respondents.

Hakim also wants Tamyes and the fatwa committee to issue a public apology to Hizbut Tahrir in local newspapers over the publication of the edict.

“We also want MAIS and JAIS to order mosques in Selangor to take down any fatwa poster or banner on Hizbut Tahrir,” the document read.

Hakim is also seeking an order from the shariah court for JAIS to return the laptop that it had seized from him.

Hizbut Tahrir was founded in 1953 in Palestine and helped to fight for an Islamic lifestyle by implementing religious laws.

The group was the brainchild of Islamic scholar Syeikh Taqiyuddin An-Nabhani.

The Malaysian branch was founded in the 1990s.

In a statement on its website dated June 28, Hizbut Tahrir said it was baffled by the fatwa committee’s decision.

“The fatwa made was against Islamic principles and it is a political fatwa full of lies,” it claims.

The statement says Hizbut Tahrir is not a deviant group and that members hold strong to their faith.

When contacted by FMT, the President of the Malaysian Sharie Lawyers Association, Musa Awang, said the procedure for a judicial review at the shariah court was slightly different from that at the civil court.

“For shariah courts, one has to file the judicial review application along with supporting affidavits.

“Then the court papers will need to be served to the respondents named in the documents,” he said, adding the other parties would have to reply in affidavits.

The process is unlike in the civil court, where a person seeking to challenge a decision by any institution or body will first need to obtain leave (permission) from the court.

Musa added that the legal challenge by Hizbut Tahrir was the first to be filed at the shariah courts after the state assembly passed an amendment to the Islamic Administrative Enactment.

The amendment enables the state shariah courts to hear judicial review cases which challenge the state religious authorities’ decisions. -FMT