KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia (Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - MALAYSIAN authorities on Tuesday broke up a mass gathering of Shi'ite Muslims and detained four.
The Shi'ite community has been illegally accused of threatening national security of Malaysia, and some 200 were arrested last December, with some charged in a religious court and awaiting trial.
Wahab Omar, a Shi'ite community leader, said religious department officers accompanied by 20 police raided a gathering to commemorate the birthday of Fatimah Zahra, a daughter of the Prophet Mohammed.
'We were having lunch... with 200 people, many of whom are non-Muslims, to celebrate the birthday, when our premises were raided,' he said. 'It was purely a social gathering and yet we continue to be harassed by religious authorities.'
Nurhamizah Othman, spokesman for the Islamic department in Selangor state which surrounds the capital, confirmed the raid and the detention of the four.
A 1989 Islamic law and a 1996 fatwa by Malaysia's top Islamic clerics banned Shi'ism, declaring it a 'deviant ideology.'
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