PAS said today that Putrajaya was damaging ties with key Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia, home of the religion’s two holy cities of Mecca and Medina, by placing ulamas suspected of practicing Wahhabism on a terror watchlist.PAS vice president Datuk Mahfuz Omar told reporters today that the move by the National Security Council (NSC) to monitor scholars such as influential former Perlis mufti Asri Zainul Abidin was an overreaction that could jeopardise ties with the country where Wahhabism is the dominant form of Islam.
“This will hurt ties with Saudi Arabia and give a negative perception towards Malaysia,” the Pokok Sena MP said.
About 26,000 Malaysian Muslims travel annually to perform the Haj in Mecca, one of the largest national quotas given by the kingdom.
Malaysia has asked for another 10,000 places as nearly 700,000 are on the waiting list.
Deputy president Mohamed Sabu also mocked the Najib administration’s move, calling it a “fiction and propaganda.”
It is reported yesterday that the NSC met and ordered state muftis and religious agencies to monitor and take action against the traditionalist Islamic practice that has been linked to terrorism.
Maverick scholar Asri was first linked to Wahhabism and the terrorists group Jemaah Islamiah (JI) early last year, along with PAS President Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang, former Perlis mentri besar Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim dan Perlis Mufti Juanda Jaya.
It is also understands that Abdul Hadi and Shahidam Kassim have been omitted from the watchlist.
Two Umno lawmakers have come to the defense of Dr Mohamed Asri Zainul Abidin, insisting that the Najib administration has wrongly labelled the maverick former Perlis mufti as a potential terrorist threat.
Both Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin and Deputy Higher Education Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah said that the NSC had overreacted over a difference of opinion by raising a terror alert over fears that Wahhabism was being revived.
http://www.kl-today.com/2011/07/ties-with-saudi-arabia-could-damage/
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