Anti-Shia sentiment is temporary, says Malayan official

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu (pic), who was accused of being a Shia Muslim by the authorities recently, believes that the anti-Shia campaign will not last.He believed that like the anti-communism campaign in the last century, the anti-Shia sentiment sweeping Malaysia is temporary and is the result of politics rather than a genuine schism between different faiths.Malaysians should heed the lessons of the past and not be caught up in this power play, said Mohamad Sabu, who is fondly known as Mat Sabu.Mohamad said the campaign and the persecution of Shia Muslims in Malaysia was to sow fear and to prop up the Barisan Nasional administration.“This anti-Shia campaign is temporary. It will not last long... we should not be caught up in this attacks by the government which is using this campaign to preserve its power,” he said during an interview with Radio Bangsar Utama in Kuala Lumpur last night.Mohamad has been labelled a Shia Muslim by the Home Ministry which had produced 10 items of evidence on December 12 to prove its claim against him. This was after its minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had accused Mohamad of being a Shia Muslim in the former’s speech at the Umno general assembly on December 7.Mohamad is taking Zahid to court over the allegations.The allegations against Mohamad come on the back of a campaign of persecution that was started recently by Malaysian religious authorities, groups and political parties against Shia Muslims.Though Shia Islam is the second largest denomination of the faith, it has been banned in Malaysia through a Muslim decree in 1993.This is while Malaysia enjoys good diplomatic relations with Iran, a majority Shia country. Malaysia had also signed an international declaration in 2005 recognising Shia as Muslims.Mohamad said the anti-Shia campaign has echoes of the anti-communist campaign in the later part of the last century where the ideology and its followers were persecuted until China became a powerhouse.“In the 1960s, the communists were said to be filthy, despicable people. If you were perceived to be a communist, you were arrested.”Eventually, the communist insurgency in the country ended with the armistice in 1989 between the Communist Party of Malaysia and the Malaysian Government. “Then US president Richard Nixon visited China and so did (former Prime Minister) Tun Abdul Razak. Communist China eventually developed to the point that it is now the second largest economy in the world.“Now its former enemies trade with China. When communist leaders from China come to our country, we lay out a red carpet for them.“If communism was really evil back then, then it should be evil now. But that is not the case, so you can see that this is all politics just like the anti-Shia sentiment.” Mohamad said the anti-Shia sentiment will die out as soon as Iran becomes influential in the Middle East and it becomes a country that everyone wants to trade with. /149