Talk with Fatwa Council in 2012 did not touch on liberalism, says SIS

Sisters in Islam (SIS) today confirmed there was a meeting with the Selangor Fatwa Council in 2012 but it was not about “liberalism” and “pluralism”, which had been used as a basis to brand the organisation as deviant.

The NGO said in a statement that the January 12 meeting only discussed their activities and research findings.

SIS insisted that it had not been given the opportunity to defend itself from accusations of promoting liberalism and religious pluralism before the religious authorities issued and gazetted the fatwa against the group in July this year.

The NGO said it was disappointed and puzzled by the Selangor mufti’s statement, as reported by the media on November 7, had cited the meeting as “evidence” that they had met on the issue of religious liberalism and pluralism.

“If the Fatwa Council suspected that SIS subscribes to religious liberalism and pluralism, why did they not raise their concerns and make attempts to advise us at the time?

“Why is it that the fatwa declaring SIS as ‘sesat dan menyeleweng daripada ajaran Islam’ was only issued 2½ years later?” SIS asked.

On October 31, SIS filed a judicial review against the fatwa, which declared the NGO and any other similar organisations that promoted “liberalism and pluralism” as deviants.

Last Thursday, SIS board member Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir told a press conference that the group had not been informed of the fatwa either before or after it was gazetted, and had only discovered it by accident.

But the following day, the Selangor Mufti Department said that SIS had met with the Selangor Fatwa committee members on January 12, 2012.

“The Selangor Mufti Department denies claims that no meeting was held with SIS before the fatwa on liberalism and religious pluralism was gazetted on July 2014,” Selangor Mufti Datuk Mohd Tamyes Abd Wahid said in a statement on November 7.

SIS said today that if the Selangor Fatwa Council and the Selangor Mufti’s Department wanted to discuss issues of religious liberalism and pluralism, they must explain to the group their concerns.

“Additionally, they should point out which specific aspects of SIS activities they believe reflect religious liberalism and pluralism,” said SIS.

It said that if the outcome of the 2012 meeting had led to the Selangor Fatwa Council to issue a fatwa against the group, SIS should have a right to know about the serious allegations and the severe implications of it.

“More importantly, what opportunity was SIS afforded as the accused to defend itself?”

Last Thursday, Tamyes told reporters he refused to meet with SIS because it would be prejudicial, as the group had already filed a judicial review against the fatwa.

In a separate press conference that day, Global Movement of Moderates Foundation (GMMF) CEO Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah said he supported SIS’s judicial review application as a right to defend itself.

PAS lawmakers Datuk Dr Mujahid Yusof Rawa and Khalid Samad had also come to the defence of SIS, saying the religious authorities would have learned that SIS did not deal with theology, let alone liberalism and pluralism, if they had made the effort to meet with the group. – November 10, 2014.

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