IT IS inappropriate to label law-abiding non-Muslim Malaysian who respect the country’s Federal Constitution as kafir harbi (belligerent infidels) as such term refers to non-Muslims who have no guarantee of protection from Muslims or fall into a group that fights Islam or commits crimes against Muslims.
In current context, however, among the groups that fall into this infidel category are the Zionists who have killed Muslims or having seized and expelled Palestinians from their homes and their homeland, according to the Federal Territories Mufti’s Office.
The kafir harbi label which implies that such individuals are enemies of Islam has been controversially used recently by a Perikatan Nasional (PN) member who is seemingly chairing a ceramah for the Nenggiri by-election to describe DAP.
“In the context of Malaysia, every non-Muslim citizen is far from being included in the category of infidels,” the FT Mufti’s Office pointed out in a response toa question as to who should be categorised as kafir harbi in today’s context.
“This is because they don’t fit into the definition or don’t possess sufficient characteristics that have been set by the scholars.
“Additionally, labelling a citizen with such term will have bad and terrible implications because it means that it’s halal to fight them, that their security is not protected nor the safety of their property is guaranteed.”
For the uninitiated, both kafir harbi and kafir zimmi (non-Muslims who do not fight against Islam but willingly sit under the auspices of an Islamic administration and pay taxes to the government) were terms used by the Muslim conquerors during ancient wartime.
When peace was achieved during the Medina era, such terms were dropped whereby all citizens were considered as one albeit with different faith.
Meanwhile, PN has downplayed the above PAS member’s use of the term kafir harbi to label DAP by calling it as “a misstatement.”.
The opposition coalition’s Nenggiri by-election director Tan Sri Annuar Musa has revealed that the said member has been sidelined for three days to avoid tensions.
The former UMNO warlord who is now a PAS supreme council member further stressed that the kafir harbi remark was personal and not reflective of PN’s stance.
On that basis, he criticised Muslim DAP leaders who demanded an apology by describing the kafir harbi label as “takfiri,” a term used to unjustly declare fellow Muslims as infidels. – Aug 10, 2024
