The Malaysian Insider telah membuat laporan yang tidak sahih keatas Majlis Fatwa Kebangsaan membayangkan yang Majlis Fatwa tidak menggalakkan orang Islam menggunakan ungkapan ‘RIP’ dengan kematian Karpal Singh baru-baru ini. Laporan mereka telah menjadi ‘viral’ dan tersebar luas di alam maya dan peringkat antarabangsa.
MLAM telah membuat kenyataan media menyangkal perkara ini, setelah menyelidik terlebih dahulu susulan peristiwa-peristiwa yang telah berlaku serta senarai fatwa-fatwa yang telah disiarkan oleh Majlis Fatwa Kebangsaan.
Kesan laporan TMI yang palsu ini meyebabkan persepsi yang amat buruk terhadap agama Islam di Malaysia yang kononnya tidak toleran, ekstremis dan terlalu dogmatik justeru mengakibatkan semangat benci yang semakin meningkat terhadap agama Islam dan cara Islam ditabdirkan atau diuruskan di Malaysia.
PRESS RELEASE
MUSLIM LAWYERS ASSOCIATION OF MALAYSIA
RE: INCITING HATRED AGAINST THE FATWA COUNCIL
PPMM condemns The Malaysiain Insider (TMI) for inciting hatred against the National Fatwa Council based on false allegation through its report dated 17th April entitled “Muslims not encouraged to use ‘RIP’, says National Fatwa Council”. Such report has caused further consternation and division between muslims and non-muslims in the country.
In the report of 17th April, TMI states: “Hours after the death of Karpal Singh, Muslims were told by the National Fatwa Council today they were not encouraged to use the phrase “Rest in Peace” (RIP) to a non-Muslim because the term had Christian connotations.” Pictures of the late Mr. Karpal Singh and his wake was inserted to relate the National fatwa council decision’s to the late Mr Karpal Singh. The source was expressly stated in the article as coming from the National Fatwa Council sitehttp://www.e-fatwa.gov.my/.
Upon perusal of the website, PPMM found that there was never listed in any of the “Senarai Fatwa Malaysia” be it either at national or state level, a fatwa on th is issue by the National Fatwa Council. PPMM however have found that there was an opinion issued by the bloghost dated 12 December 2013 in a question and answer column.
TMI has thus used an old non fatwa opinion to falsely accuse that the National Fatwa Council issued a statement hours after death of the late Karpal Singh. It has created much scorn against, specifically, the National Fatwa Council and, in general, the Muslims, in the social media.
After causing much dissension among the public with its inaccurate report, TMI then amended its original report without a separate public notice and apology. They did this by amending the original article hiding their inciteful remarks. Those who have read the earlier report would not know it’s been amended unless one refers back to the previous article. Even then they would not be able to determine the original wordings as it has been deleted. TMI claimed that they have amended to correct the wrongful implication.
This is indeed an unethical manner of amending the article. The amendment changed the tone and premise of the article. The editor justification was also dishonest. The original article clearly with the picture and wordings put the blame on the National Fatwa Council and not by way of implication.
PPMM highly condemns this unethical dishonest reporting of TMI in inciting hatred not only against the National Fatwa Council but also against the Muslims in general.
Dato Haji Zainul Rijal Abu Bakar
President
Muslim Lawyers Association of Malaysia
Date: 21st April 2014
Antara komen pada artikel berkaitan:
Wow. So many people are upset as a result of this article. But the thing is, this article did not tell the whole truth, some important facts are missing, and because of that, it created a false impression and causes many people to be upset. Sometimes I wonder what is the intention of writing articles like this, is it to make non-muslim to hate muslim/Islam? If anti-Islam sentiments are high, would this sow discord among PAS-DAP and hence the PR alliance? How will we take over Putrajaya then?
Again, this article does not tell the whole truth. Its omission of certain facts is quite irresponsible, in my opinion. Here are some facts which I would like to highlight:
1. This “fatwa” is just an advisory. An advisory to muslim. Only to muslim. Meaning, muslims can follow (which in encouraged), or dont follow also can. Just like to highlight this again.
2. Here the important bit – If you read the actual fatwa website, it CLEARLY said that if a muslim used RIP to a non-muslim as a sign of respect, then it is allowed, in fact, Fatwa Council said it is ENCOURAGED (harus). So, Fatwa Council clearly allows this and in fact encouraged muslims to say RIP to non-muslims if it is meant as a show of respect. Of course, muslim use it as a show of respect, what else would muslim use it for, to show disrespect? Of course not. So Fatwa council said the use of RIP as a show of respect it is allowed, in fact it is encouraged. This very important fact is missing from this article, thereby creating a different impression altogether. Here is the website: http://www.e-fatwa.gov.my/blog/hukum-menyebut-rest-peace-rip-kepada-bukan-islam-meninggal-dunia
3. Another small point – this “fatwa/advisory” was published in December 2013. Yet this article gives the impression as if fatwa council issued this ruling just because of Karpal’s death (thereby adds to the anger). People are already saddened by the sudden loss of Karpal. And then this article is written giving wrong impression adds fuel to the fire, I do not know what is the agenda. I cannot even find the source in which this article said it got its information from.
If you look at fatwa’s website, yes, the fatwa website also expressed Islam’s views on non-muslim in the after life. This is not new, this view has been there since thousands of years. So I do not want to go into the details of the believes of different religions, as discussions on that can only lead to “agree to disagree” at best, or at worse, it can lead to some very unpleasant debates about religion differences. So I want to avoid that.
If you take into account the missing facts which was omitted from this article, the use of RIP to me is a small thing. The “advisory” by Fatwa Council is also not a big issue, because they actually allow it if it is meant as a show of respect (which of course muslims use it as a show of respect). Things are just being misrepresented and blown out of proportion. Please do not think bad of Islam and to all those who practice it.
