KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysia Islamic leader has called on Muslims to remain steadfast in their resolve and “protect the sanctity of Islam and Prophet Mohamed.” The comments from Perak Mufti Harussani Zakaria comes on the heels of global protests against an anti-Islam film that insulted and defamed Islam and its Prophet. He said that “Muslims must rise against insults against Islam and Prophet Mohamed, and not be in cahoots with those who commit or promote such misdeeds.” On September 11, in Egypt, protesters climbed the US Embassy's wall and took down the American flag, replacing it with an Islamic flag that read: “There is no God but God and Mohamed is His Messenger." While the Egyptian protesters remained nonviolent, in Libya's Benghazi, violent attacks took place against the American consulate in the city, which left Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other American staffers dead. Protests then erupted in more than 20 cities across the globe in response to the anti-Islam film “Innocence of Muslims.” “As the Muslim ummah (community) is seen as weak today, we and pur religion have been easy prey for ridicule by anti-Islamic elements from time to time. “What we could only afford to do is to express our anger, like in all parts of the Muslim world, which shows that this is a serious matter for us to tackle,” he said after being on the panel of a forum on organ donation on Wednesday. Harussani was also referring to Perak DAP chairman Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham in his recent Twitter which questioned whether Muslims were spending too much time and energy on the “Innocence of Muslims” controversial video clip shown on YouTube. Ngeh had also allegedly tweeted on Monday that “Khairy (Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin) wants Muslim protest against Sam Bacile. For Islam or for his political gains….?” Harussani regards Ngeh's remarks as being insensitive to the feelings of Muslims, “as he is not a Muslim, but if it happens to his own religion, I think he would react worse than we have”. He said Muslims should be united no matter what happened, including having differences of opinion or different political ideology in the interest of race and religion. The mufti said it was also haram, or forbidden, “for Muslims to vote for people's representatives who ridiculed Islam and create animosity, and who would only destroy the country.”
