Mufti joins GE14 fray by telling voters to reject Hindraf candidates

(FMT) – Perlis mufti Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin has renewed his attack on Hindraf, urging voters to reject its candidates at the coming polls, following the pressure group’s alliance with opposition coalition Pakatan Harapan (PH)

Asri said Hindraf was a threat to the nation and religion, and their candidates should be rejected.

“Whichever party makes them a candidate, that party is a threat to the peace that the country has had all this long,” he said in a short Facebook post.

Asri has been on a warpath with Hindraf over the Indian rights group’s opposition to controversial preacher Zakir Naik. 

In April last year, following a suit by Hindraf and others against the government for allowing Naik to be in Malaysia, Asri who is a staunch supporter of Naik launched a veiled attack on the group in a poem on his Facebook.

“When those who idolise cows as God unite, and call for our preacher to be fettered, to hand him over to an evil government that worships the fire and practises the sati, burning widows, in that continent, a teaching that divides humans into castes,” he wrote.

Following criticism from civil society and Hindu groups, Asri apologised to Hindus, and said the poem was directed at the Indian government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the wake of violence by Hindu extremists against Muslims over the slaughter of cows.

Hindraf has held meetings with PH leaders including chairman Dr Mahathir Mohamad, and has agreed to cooperate with the coalition at the coming polls.

Hindraf chairman P Waythamoorthy had said the group would help PH by urging the Indian community in rural and semi-urban areas to vote for the coalition.

In August last year, Mahathir and Waythamoorthy discussed the prospect of the Indian rights group joining the opposition coalition. The two have had several more meetings since then.