JOHOR BARU: The Johor Islamic Religious Council (MAINJ) yesterday issued a fatwa prohibiting Muslims from attending and participating in religious rituals of other faiths in the state.
State Islamic Religious Affairs Committee chairman, Mohd Fared Mohd Khalid, said Sultan of Johor Sultan Ibrahim Almarhum Sultan Iskandar had consented to the fatwa, which came into effect yesterday.
He said the religious scholars from the four schools of Islamic thought — Shafie, Hanafi, Maliki and Hanbali — had agreed that Muslims were prohibited from attending and participating in religious rituals of other faiths.
“These non-Islamic religious rituals include those performed in houses of worship, as well as other places.”
However, according to a number of scholars, Muslims were allowed to fulfil invitations to a ceremony in conjunction with a celebration of other faiths without a religious ritual ceremony, which is permissible, he said at the Iskandar Islamic Centre here yesterday.
Fared hoped the fatwa could provide a better understanding among Muslims in Johor.
He said guidelines were issued on non-Muslim festivals that Muslims could attend.
“Among other things, the ceremony is not accompanied by rituals including religious symbols or singing religious songs, which are against the Islamic faith.”
Fared said MAINJ would meet religious leaders and management of non-Muslim houses of worship to explain and clarify the guidelines.
“This ban is not meant to disturb the harmony between races but simply to give advice and guidance so that community leaders are careful in promoting togetherness without violating boundaries,” he said, adding that people who violate the guidelines could be prosecuted in accordance with Section 9 of the Johor Syariah Criminal Offences Enactment 1997.
Source: New Straits Times
