Another Ramadan slander by a mufti?

-Ravinder Singh, June 25, 2016.

muftiWhat Pahang mufti Abdul Rahman Osman has done is allegedly to pass a religious death sentence on people he deems kafir harbi, and hudud is not implemented yet. What will happen if hudud gets implemented? Has he got legal authority and impunity to do so?

Is he God to label people kafir harbi just because these people don’t agree with him and others like him who are clamouring for hudud to be implemented for political reasons?

Dear mufti, if hudud is the law of God, why has it got to be drafted by human beings? Why has it got to be tabled in Parliament to be approved by human beings?

The mufti cannot be blind to the fact that many well learned and highly respected Muslims have come forward to say that they do not support the implementation of hudud. There are many ordinary Muslims who are also not in favour of hudud although they are unable to voice this out openly.

Then there are the non-Muslims parties and ministers in the ruling coalition who do not support hudud. Why has he not labelled all these as kafir harbi as well?

Can anyone, hiding behind the facade of religion, issue orders/directives to their followers to kill people who have different opinions from them? Are they immune from the law of the land?

Where is the rule of law if religious bigots can order the killing of fellow citizens at their whims?

Could the inspector-general of police (IGP) please tell us Malaysians if this mufti has not committed any offence for inciting people to kill those he has labelled kafir harbi?

What this mufti did is nothing short of what the Islamic State (IS) is doing – ordering their followers to kill people, even Muslims, who do not follow the Islam of the IS.

Looks like we don’t have to wait for IS fighters to return from the Middle East to start killing Malaysians.

According to a Sudan-born law expert, Professor Dr Abdullahi A An-Naim from Emory University based in Georgia, the US, who professed to be a Muslim, Muslims have no obligation to support hudud as the Islamic criminal code is not mentioned in the Quran.

He had challenged those claiming that the Quran required Muslims to support hudud as a religious obligation saying, “Give me a Quranic text that gives this obligation”. No one seems to have answered his challenge.

All this demonising of those who do not support hudud, to the extent of pronouncing fatwas declaring them kafir harbi who ought to be killed, is nothing religious but propaganda and campaigning for the next general election, for brainwashing takes time and some people are in desperation to hold on to power.

The IGP has a duty to take action against this mufti who is said to have passed a death sentence on people he labelled kafir harbi. What if some bigoted person takes this fatwa seriously, and believing he will go to heaven for killing kafir harbi, goes on a killing spree? Must the IGP wait for this to become fait accompli before acting as was reasoned in the case of a threat to slap someone in public?