Muslims with atheistic views violate shariah laws, says IGP

Khalid Abu Bakar says they will be investigated by the religious department and the police will assist while JAIS director says they will call up any Muslim found to be an atheist for questioning.

PETALING JAYA: Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Khalid Abu Bakar, who drew flak for his stern warning to atheists, said today Muslims who hold atheistic views would be investigated by the religious department with assistance from the police.

“A Malay Muslim will surely be investigated by the religious department and the police will assist as it is an offence under the shariah enactments for a Muslim to be an atheist,” he told FMT in a text message.

Khalid yesterday warned atheists against creating “uneasiness” among Muslims with their activities.

He was taken to task by Islamic Renaissance Front director Ahmad Farouk Musa who said the IGP was going beyond his jurisdiction.

Farouk said the main duty of the police was to maintain order, not to encroach on personal liberties.

“If the atheists are enjoying their freedom to be free of religion without impinging on the rights of others to practise their religions, there shouldn’t be a problem,” he said.

Meanwhile, Selangor Islamic religious department (JAIS) director Harris Kasim told FMT that they would question any Muslim found to hold atheistic views.

He said they would be called up for questioning and asked on their personal details such as their background, their hometown and their religious background.

“Some are converts who might have become an atheist. Or if they are Malay Muslims we will also call them for questioning on their reasons (to become an atheist),” he said.

When asked if any action will be taken against Muslims found atheists, he said: “We are just calling them for questioning.”

The IGP and the JAIS director were asked on a recent report by The Australian which said at least one Muslim said to hold atheistic views was being questioned by both the police and the Islamic religious authorities.

The newspaper said the man had been questioned by police for long stretches and was asked to turn over his phone and his Facebook account.

The report, on how Islamisation was creeping into Malaysian society, quoted a Muslim who held atheistic views in private as saying that the authorities were hunting for Muslims who were atheists.

The man, given the name Zahari to protect his identity, belonged to an atheist club which hit the local headlines recently when a photograph was uploaded to Facebook showing smiling members at a rare social gathering of the largely online group.

On Aug 6, the government said it would investigate whether any Muslims had joined the Kuala Lumpur chapter of Atheist Republic, a Canada-based organisation.

Zahari told The Australian that the authorities had singled out one from his group for questioning in the hope that he “will break and rat us out”.

He said the man had been interrogated by both the police and officials of the Islamic religious affairs department.

The latter, Zahari claimed, had threatened to try the man in the shariah court for apostasy and to convince his wife to annul their marriage.

“There is no room for civil discourse when it concerns religion here. We are lucky to have secular laws and people defending them still. But I’m not sure how long that will last.

“This is a window into a moderate (Muslim) nation that is turning conservative,” Zahari was quoted as saying.

Zahari said he had been careful to stay out of pictures taken that day, but he had been spending the past week looking over his shoulder.

According to the report, some of those in the photograph had received death threats and had gone into hiding, fearing attacks from vigilantes or detention by Islamic religious authorities in Islamic re-education centres.

Last week, federal minister Shahidan Kassim made headlines locally and abroad when he said atheists should be “hunted down”. He claimed they were in violation of the Federal Constitution.

The Negri Sembilan state mufti Mohd Yusof Ahmad reportedly said Islam prescribed death against Muslims who left the religion for atheism, if they were “stubborn” and refused to repent.

Earlier, Channel News Asia had quoted one Muslim who practises atheism as saying: “I am worried. I have already accepted that something might happen to me … that I might be killed.

“I say this because I see how extreme people have become, how my Facebook friends (could) turn into real-life threats for me with their comments that it is halal (permitted) to kill atheists, apostates … how eager they are to kill to gain merits in heaven.” - FMT