Mosque officials, speakers with political agenda should resign - Sultan Nazrin

The Sultan of Perak, Sultan Nazrin Shah today called on accredited mosque committee members or religious speakers to relinquish their posts if they have political agendas and ambitions that will lead to the abuse of the sanctity of the mosque.

He said these accredited individuals should be honest, sincere and honourable enough to resign from their respective posts instead of being a ‘thorn in the flesh’.

“It is very strange, preachers given the accreditation and honour to give lectures in the house of God abuse the trust by inserting elements of insults as well as to belittle and ridicule the State Islamic Religious Department and the Royal Malaysia Police personnel,” he said when officiating at the 2019 state-level mosque committee conference at the Casuarina @ Meru Convention Centre in Ipoh.

Sultan Nazrin also admonished individuals from certain political groups for using several non-political and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to introduce certain programmes to be conducted in or around the mosques’ compound, to conceal the true intention.

On Oct 18, an NGO known as Gerakan Pembela Ummah (Ummah) had organised a state-level Buy Muslim-made First (BMF) campaign at the An-Nur Mosque, Batu 8, in Ulu Kinta.

Sultan Nazrin also said the enemies with the greatest potential to tarnish or defile the mosque and to divide the ummah were those with excessive divisive political activities.

“The truth is sacrificed because emotions supersede rationality. Slander becomes commonplace occurrence, practised even by those who adhere to all five pillars of Islam and the spread is facilitated and promoted by the social media,” he said.

In his speech, Sultan Nazrin also recalled the history behind the construction of several prominent mosques in Perak, including the Ubudiah Mosque in Kuala Kangsar which is recognised among the five most beautiful mosques in the world; the 121-year-old Panglima Kinta Mosque; the Indian Muslim Mosque and Muhammadiah Mosque or Muslim Chinese Mosque, and are all located in the Ipoh city.

Accordingly, he also ordered the Perak Islamic Religious and Malay Customs Council to document the history of the construction of the mosques digitally as valuable scientific materials to be used as a reference for the future generations.

“So that they do not take it for granted and behave like ‘kacang lupakan kulit’ (a person who has forgotten his roots), unappreciative of the hard work and sacrifices of the previous generation who took on the responsibility of building the mosques in Perak,” Sultan Nazrin said.

He said based on the record, Perak has 609 mosques, 63 Friday surau and 1,945 surau today with each having its own identity and history behind its construction.

- Bernama