SERDANG member of Parliament Teo Nie Ching came under attack recently for visiting and speaking inside the prayer area of a surau on 22 Aug 2010. Umno and Perkasa leaders have accused her of desecrating the surau and not respecting the sanctity of Muslim houses of worship. Is this merely politics? Just what does Islam say about allowing non-Muslims inside mosques and suraus?

Map of Muslim-majority countries. Darker shades indicate higher percentage of Muslims(Map source: Wiki commons) DURING a press conference in 2003, then Perlis Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim tried to defend the state’s decision to loosen conditions for polygamy. Perlis had decided that Muslim men did not need to seek their first wife’s consent to [...]

“If there is a need to appoint one, I would suggest non-partisan ulama, like Datuk Seri Harussani Zakaria.” KULIM-Bandar Baru Member of Parliament Zulkifli Noordin names the Perak mufti as his candidate of choice to lead Pakatan Rakyat. Zulkifli, no stranger to controversy, was responding to a blog posting by Datuk Zaid Ibrahim. Zaid had [...]

PETALING JAYA, 25 May 2009: The Perak Pakatan Rakyat (PR)’s plan to stage a three-day hunger strike calling for the dissolution of the state assembly, has come under fire from certain quarters who say it might be haram. An Utusan Malaysia article today quoted two state muftis as terming the practice as “haram” for Muslims. [...]

IPOH, 24 April 2009: Perak Mufti Datuk Seri Harussani Zakaria has urged the government to get views from the Malaysian Mufti Council before making any decision regarding Islam to avoid confusion. He said the government decision that a child’s religion must be in accordance with the common religion of the parents at the time of [...]

IPOH, 20 Feb 2009: Newly-appointed Menteri Besar Datuk Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir said he and his six state executive councillors do not want to be hasty like the Speaker from the Pakatan Rakyat who suspended them from attending the state assembly. “We don’t want to be like them. We will use the law to resolve [...]