“Malaysia en route to Talibanization”
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/160461.html
Prominent Malaysian scholar Asri Zainul Abidin says it is a worrying sign that authorities in Kuala Lumpur are becoming more intolerant.
“Malaysia is trying to become a country a la Taliban that only allows one school of thought,” the Associated Press quoted Zainul Abidin as saying.
The remarks come after the country’s religious police targeted several Shia religious gatherings in various parts of the country over the past months.
Police detained more than 200 Shia Muslims, including Iranians, Indonesians and Pakistanis, at an Ashura mourning ceremony last month.
“The officers broke into and damaged our prayer hall, a private property where we were having special prayers for the Prophet Mohammed’s grandchildren,” AFP quoted Kamil Zuhairi Abdul Aziz, a prominent Malaysian Shia leader, as saying in December.
On Ashura, Shia Muslims hold mourning ceremonies to pay homage to the third Shia Imam, Hossein (PBUH), and 72 of his companions and family members who were martyred in Karbala, Iraq, over 1,300 years ago.
Zuhairi says police forces are systematically violating the basic rights of the Shia community members in the country.
“If other communities like Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, Sikhs and others have their right to worship and practice under the constitution then why not us,” Zuhairi added.
He went on to say that thousands of Shia Muslims in Malaysia practice their faith behind closed doors for fear of being targeted by authorities.
“We were condemned, criticized, slandered and threatened in local media just because we practice what had been preached by our ancestors who were Shias and have lived in Malaysia for centuries.”
Shia Muslims make up more than one-third of the Muslim population worldwide. They also represent the majority population in Azerbaijan, Iraq, Iran and Bahrain and form significant communities in Afghanistan, Indonesia, India, Lebanon, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
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seems to be a lot of sunni shia tension growing all over the muslim world..if they are divided they cannot be united..
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