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Malaysia: Anti-Government Mosques Taken Over by Government Agency
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| Row over running mosques in Malaysia |
Report By Kazi Mahmood
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan. 7 (IslamOnline) - Anti-government mosques in the state of Selangor, Malaysia, have been taken over by the Selangor Religious Department (JAIS), official sources said on Monday, January 7, 2002.
The JAIS, a government agency that acts as a religious police department and a private eye on the Muslim community in Malaysia, has taken control of ten mosques in the State of Selangor.
Among the ten mosques are the Damansara Utama, Bandar Baru Sungai Buloh, Subang Jaya and Subang Airport mosques.
According to JAIS sources, these mosques are all "Party Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) controlled". PAS, which is ruling the two East Coast States of Terengganu and Kelantan, does not actually control these mosques, IslamOnline was told Monday.
“The committee of the Mosques is probably pro-PAS and the imams of the Mosques attack the government during their speeches and sermons on Fridays,” a mosque official in Selangor said.
JAIS said it has been monitoring these mosques for some time. According to rulings spelled by the Home Ministry, the JAIS has the rights to overturn the management of the mosques which does not toe to the line.
The government in fact decided a year earlier that mosques should not be used for political purposes. Under the Pusat Islam (Islamic Center which is located in Putra Jaya), the mosques are to follow strict guidelines.
They should certainly not be anti-government. However, the actions taken against the mosques have surprised many in Selangor. The JAIS said it took action against one of the mosques which had been “infiltrated” by the PAS 20 years earlier.
In late 2001, a letter was issued by JAIS, informing these in charge of the ten mosques that starting January 1, 2002, JAIS would take over the mosques and appoint a new committee to be nominated by the State.
"The letter said that this is being done on the instructions of His Highness the Sultan of Selangor," said one of the mosque’s committee members. "The Sultan has been told that these mosques are all anti-Sultan and that we refuse to acknowledge the Sultan as the State’s head of religious authority."
Sources close to PAS say the mosques may now be managed by pro-United Malays National Organization (UMNO) members, in a bid to counter the influence of PAS among Muslims in the areas targeted.
The UMNO has always insisted that it does not control mosques in Malaysia.
However, government officials argue that the directives by the Islamic Center are not followed by pro-PAS mosques which hold “political” speeches in the vicinity of the holy places.
The current conflict between the government agency and the mosques management is about the head of religious authority in the state of Selangor, or the Sultan of
Selangor.
In Malaysia, religion is a state matter and the Sultan of each respective state is the top religious authority in his state.
"According to what we were told, the religious department had taped all our Friday prayer sermons and had handed the taped recordings to the Sultan as proof that we are anti-Sultan," a member of one of the mosque said. "It is being alleged that we refuse to mention the Sultan in “our Doa’a” (prayer)."
"This is not the case," added the committee member. "His Highness has never stepped foot in our mosque. Why doesn't the Sultan come to our mosque at least once for one of the Friday prayers and sees and listens for himself?"
"The Sultan has been misled into believing that PAS is anti-Sultan," he added. "PAS is in power in two states and the state governments there have a very good relationship with the Sultans, especially in
Terengganu."
PAS controls the states of Kelantan and Terengganu where they won landslide electoral victories. The party also tripled its seats in the National Parliament and is currently the leading opposition party in Malaysia.
The worst incident for mosque control was in the mid-1980s when police padlocked a mosque in Kuala Terengganu, refusing to allow the villagers to perform Friday prayers.
The women from the village broke the padlock and formed a human barricade while the men performed their Friday prayers.
The women refused to budge and "invited" the police to shoot them so that they may die as martyrs in defense of their mosque. The police subsequently downed their guns and joined the men in Friday prayers, the Freeanwar.com website reported Monday, 7 January.
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