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Asri: You can’t simply label non-Muslim citizens ‘kafir harbi’

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Perlis Mufti explains that the term can only be used against Israelis.

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Asri Zainul Abidin

PETALING JAYA:
Perlis Mufti Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin says that non-Muslim citizens cannot be categorised as “kafir harbi” (belligerent infidels), with whom the Muslim community is supposed to be at war with.

“In the modern context, the individual who gains citizenship in a Dar al-Islam (Islamic country) is of the Dhimmi (non-Muslim citizen), meaning those who are protected or whose rights are preserved,” Mohd Asri wrote on his Facebook page.

He said this in response to a statement by Pahang Mufti Abdul Rahman Osman who urged the Muslim community to fight those opposing the Private Members’ Bill, proposed by PAS, to elevate the status of shariah courts as it equated to hating Islam.

Abdul Rahman had said this when taking the DAP to task for speaking out against the contentious bill. He later told Malaysiakini that the term “kafir harbi” was meant for those who opposed Islam.

Asri went on to cite the definition of a Muslim state, which according to World Muslim Scholars Union Chairman Yusuf al Qaradawi was one where political power was in the hands of the Muslims, there was implementation of Islamic law, albeit not as a whole, and there was freedom to practise the faith in peace.

He argued that Malaysia had fulfilled such conditions and therefore non-Muslim citizens protected by the law cannot be termed as “kafir harbi”.

According to Asri, the term could also not be used on non-Muslims from non-Muslim countries that have ties with Muslim countries, such as the United States.

“’Kafir harbi’ are non-Muslims who reject and oppose Islam as well as had allied themselves with Islam’s enemies and have no ties with Muslim nations,” he said, adding that only Israel could be categorised as such.

“Therefore, non-Muslim Malaysian citizens cannot be categorised as ‘kafir harbi’, for war to be waged against and it is not halal (impermissible) to spill their blood.”

Several quarters, including MCA, had said Abdul Rahman’s views could lead to violence in a multiracial country like Malaysia.

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