Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Dr Mujahid Yusof Rawa should just “close shop” because he has failed to uphold Islam where it matters, lawyer and social activist Siti Kasim said.
She came down hard on the minister in a Facebook post today, calling him the “minister of useless functions” over his unconvincing statements on Islam in Malaysia in an interview with the BBC.
The minister in charge of religion was full of contradictions and appeared powerless to make real change to curb religious extremism in Malaysia, she said.
“Throughout the conversations the Minister could not provide a single instance where he or his Ministry was of any use to make any change to any religious extremism taking place in Malaysia.
“NOTHING. A big fat zero,” Siti Kasim wrote.
She also took him to task for doing nothing on the issue of divisive Islamic preacher Dr Zakir Naik, whose permanent residency (PR) in Malaysia has deepened racial and religious polarisation.
“He admits Zakir Naik is divisive and not appropriate for Malaysia and yet he does nothing and calls Zakir Naik who is a proponent of Muslims becoming terrorists an inspiration.
“A PR is revocable by the Federal Government. What does he do? (He) calls this terrorist proponent an inspiration,” Siti Kasim said.
In the interview on BBC’s HardTalk, Mujahid was asked to explain why he called the controversial Zakir who had allegedly propagated terrorism with his speeches “inspirational”.
Mujahid denied that his statements of support for Zakir were endorsement of the Mumbai-born preacher, and that he did not agree with everything Zakir did or said.
The minister said he had told Zakir several times that some of his views were inappropriate for multi-racial Malaysia. – TMI
Related report: Nov 14, Mujahid’s Hard Time with BBC’s Hardtalk