Chandra calls for annulment of anti-Shia fatwa

(FMT) – Social activist Chandra Muzaffar has called for the setting aside of a 1996 fatwa declaring Shi’ism as a deviant expression of Islam.

He told FMT he believed the fatwa was misconceived and that Shia Muslims were not beyond the pale of Islam since they, like Sunnis, accept the Quran as revelation and believe in the absolute oneness of God.

The issue of religious persecution came up again recently when Islamic Renaissance Front chief Ahmad Farouk Musa complained about continued demonisation of Shia Muslims in Friday sermons and remarked that “nothing has changed with respect to Islam” since Pakatan Harapan came to power.

Mujahid Yusof Rawa, the minister in charge of religious affairs, said in response that a line must be drawn when it came to hate speech. He stopped short of criticising the fatwa and said it was not within his powers to instruct state religious authorities on the matter.

Chandra said it was undeniable that there was antagonism towards Shia Muslims although this did not come from all Muslims in Malaysia.

He alleged that “narrow-minded Wahhabist thinking” within “certain influential circles” had raised the pitch of antagonism in fairly recent times.

He also said there was a connection with the civil war in Sunni-majority Syria, which is ruled by a Shi’ite, Bashar al-Assad.

He said groups linked to elements in Saudi Arabia and Lebanon had incited people to see the Syrian war as a case of a secular Shi’ite leader oppressing Sunnis.

“Between 2012 and 2015, the antagonism towards Shi’ites, based on false narratives in Syria, reached a crescendo and there were elements in government circles and NGOs in Malaysia pushing these sentiments.”

Chandra said although he believed anti-Shia sentiments weren’t as strong now as they were a few years ago, there was a need for the religious elite to play a bigger role in stopping the hatred.

He called for a return to the principles of the 2004 Amman Message, which he noted was signed by several Malaysian leaders, including PKR president Anwar Ibrahim and former Umno Youth leader Khairy Jamaluddin.

The Amman Message is a declaration by leaders of several Muslim nations. It calls for unity in the Muslim world and the recognition of Sunni, Shia and Ibadhi legal schools.

Writer Faisal Tehrani told FMT he hoped Mujahid, a graduate of Cairo’s Al-Azhar University, was committed to Al-Azhar’s fatwa that Shia Muslims are not deviants.

He also pointed out that the Islamabad Declaration of 2007 was essentially similar to the Amman Message in that it called for an end to the demonisation of different expressions of Islam.

He said Mujahid needed to take the lead in stopping hatred towards Shia Muslims, noting that he had attended seminars in Shia-majority Iran before becoming a minister.

He suggested that Mujahid have dialogue sessions with Shia Muslims in Malaysia.

Faisal also spoke of the Rabat Plan of Action 2013, which was crafted by the United Nations and gives definitions of free speech and hate speech. In its description of hate speech, the document refers to the “hint of a crime”.

“In many instances, Friday sermons call for eradication of the Shi’ites,” he said. “That’s a crime, I suppose.

“I don’t understand why we should promote hate. Hate is so wrong. It’s anti-religion and even un-Malay.”