KUALA LUMPUR (Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Penang Institute chief executive officer Zairil Khir Johari questioned the federal government’s rationale of inviting Shia-majority Iran for the international annual Quran recitation competition while persecuting the minority group in this country.
Zairil said the Iranians had won the competition nine times since 1961.
“Why is Iran a member of the Organisation of Islamic Countries?” asked the Bukit Bendera MP when delivering his opening speech at a seminar on Islam and secularism in a hotel yesterday.
Last month, Kedah Mentri Besar Mukhriz Mahathir announced that a fatwa passed in 1996 forbidding the practice and propagation of Shia Islam would be made into a state Islamic law enactment.
Last month, Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi claimed the Shiite community posed a national security threat to the peace of this country.
In a related development, National Fatwa Council chairman Abdul Shukor Husin declared Shia Muslims as deviants.
“Shia’s teachings are deviant from Islamic theology.
“But we haven’t decided whether they are non-Muslims because they also recite the Muslim profession of faith and yet don’t abide by the teachings and practices of Prophet Muhammad,” Shukor told Sinar Harian Online yesterday.
Touching on the federal government’s action against the Shia community, Zairil said the Sunni-Shia divide was 1,400 years old and further eroding the unity of Malaysians.
“In the past 56 years we have not moved beyond mutual tolerance,” he said.
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Zairil said the Iranians had won the competition nine times since 1961.
“Why is Iran a member of the Organisation of Islamic Countries?” asked the Bukit Bendera MP when delivering his opening speech at a seminar on Islam and secularism in a hotel yesterday.
Last month, Kedah Mentri Besar Mukhriz Mahathir announced that a fatwa passed in 1996 forbidding the practice and propagation of Shia Islam would be made into a state Islamic law enactment.
Last month, Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi claimed the Shiite community posed a national security threat to the peace of this country.
In a related development, National Fatwa Council chairman Abdul Shukor Husin declared Shia Muslims as deviants.
“Shia’s teachings are deviant from Islamic theology.
“But we haven’t decided whether they are non-Muslims because they also recite the Muslim profession of faith and yet don’t abide by the teachings and practices of Prophet Muhammad,” Shukor told Sinar Harian Online yesterday.
Touching on the federal government’s action against the Shia community, Zairil said the Sunni-Shia divide was 1,400 years old and further eroding the unity of Malaysians.
“In the past 56 years we have not moved beyond mutual tolerance,” he said.
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