Guan Eng sends legal notices to NST, Berita Harian over mufti issue

(MMO) – Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said today he will sue the New Straits Times (NST) and Berita Harian (BH) for defamation if the dailies do not retract a report claiming he had removed a state mufti for banning non-Muslims from using the word “Allah”.

The Penang lawmaker gave the two dailies 48 hours to retract the articles published on February 5 and to publish an apology, failing which he will file defamation suits against the newspapers.

In the articles, both BH and NST reported that Lim had not renewed former mufti Datuk Seri Hassan Ahmad’s contract in 2014 after the ban on “Allah” and 39 other Arabic words were passed under Section 48(3) and (4) of the Penang Islamic Religious Administration Enactment 2004.

The dailies had quoted state PAS Youth chief Afnan Hamimi Taib Azamudden.

“NST and BH continue to lie on many matters. I can’t be suing for so many matters, but this is a big issue that plays on racial sentiments in order to cover the failures of BN and PAS,” Lim told a press conference at his office this morning.

He stressed that he was not involved in the appointment of the mufti but that the decision to replace the mufti was made by state religious affairs committee chairman Datuk Abdul Malik Abul Kassim.

Both dailies had reported Afnan Hamimi’s Facebook status dated February 1 questioning the reasons for the state not to renew the contract of the former mufti back in 2014.

He had questioned if this was due to the fatwa banning non-Muslims from using the word “Allah” and 39 other words in Penang.

Later, in the same press conference, Abdul Malik said the ban on the 40 words was gazetted by the state government on April 29, 2010 while Hassan was still the Penang Mufti.

“Datuk Dr Wan Salim Wan Mohd Noor took over as the state mufti on June 7, 2014 which is four years after the 40 words were gazetted and in that four years, Hassan’s contract was renewed annually,” he pointed out.

He added that he gets advice directly from PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim on all Islamic matters in Penang.

“The appointments of the state mufti, the president and committee members for the state Islamic affairs council are proposed and approved by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim; there was no interference by the Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng,” he said.

He also reiterated Wan Salim’s earlier statements that the state exco and the state administration had never interfered in the passage and gazetting of any fatwa in the state.

The ban on non-Muslims from using the 40 Arabic words was gazetted under Section 48(3) and (4) of the Penang Islamic Religious Administration Enactment 2004.

The 40 words are “Solat”, “Surau”, “Masjid”, “Allah”, “Firman Allah”, “Ulama”, “Hadith”, “Ibadah”, “Kaabah”, “Qadhi’“, “Illahi”, “Wahyu”, “Mubaligh”, “Syariah”, “Qiblat”, “Haji”, “Mufti”, “Rasul”, “Iman”, “Dakwah”, “Wali”, “Fatwa”, “Imam”, “Nabi”, “Sheikh”, “Khutbah”, “Tabligh”, “Akhirat”, “Azan”, “Al Quran”, “As Sunnah”, “Auliya’“, “Karamah”, “Syahadah”, “Baitullah”, “Musolla”, “Zakat Fitrah”, “Hajjah”, “Taqwa” and “Soleh”.