COMMENT | The issue of the Federal Territories Mufti Bill has been much discussed. We even wrote about it in our Malay post “RUU Mufti 2024: Penjurusan ke Arah Autoritarianisme Agama?”.

It was published on our portal irfront.net last month. Undoubtedly, while this issue has a direct bearing on the lives of Muslims in Malaysia, it will also indirectly affect non-Muslims since all of us are living in the same ecosystem.

The most damning aspect of this bill is its categorisation of Islam under Article 4. This article defines Ahlul Sunnah wal-Jama’ah as those who follow the aqidah (creed) of Ash-āira and Maturidia, the fiqh (jurisprudence) of Syafi’iyyya and the three other mazhab or denomination (plural mazāhib), and the tasawuf (Sufism) of al-Ghazali and al-Junaidi.

This article is the most un-Islamic of all...