Jakim: Non-Muslim flood victims welcome at mosques

KEPALA BATAS: The Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (Jakim) said yesterday it does not see any issue with non-Muslims being among the evacuees at mosques, surau and Islamic religious schools used as flood relief centres.

Its deputy director-general (human development), Zainal Abidin Jaffar, said there was no problem in using Islamic houses of worship to provide shelter for non-Muslims in accordance with the rules of Fiqh (a section of Islamic law).

Jakim had come up with rules of Fiqh on floods that explain to non-Muslims the regulations to be adhered to in mosques and surau that were used as flood relief centres, he said to reporters here.

“Please do use (mosques and surau as relief centres). Alhamdulillah (Praise be to God), the (mosque and surau) committees do not have any objection,” he said, adding that this was happening now in places in Kelantan where the nearest alternative accommodation for flood evacuees were mosques, surau or Islamic religious schools.

Zainal Abidin spoke to reporters after Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Jamil Khir Baharom handed over flood relief aid to mosques and surau in Kedah and Penang, at a hotel here.

10 mosques and three surau affected by floods in the two states on Nov 4 received RM10,000 and RM5,000 each, respectively, well as 4,000 copies of the Quran.

Zainal Abidin said the rules of Fiqh on floods were first applied in Penang on Nov 4 and later in Kelantan and Terengganu.

He also said that Jakim had set up teams to provide spiritual counselling to flood victims who had lost their property in the disaster.-FMT