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MHA probes online post defending preacher whose books were banned

SINGAPORE — A Facebook post defending local religious preacher Rasul Dahri — whose books were recently banned here — is being investigated by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), said Communications and Information Minister Yaacob Ibrahim on Thursday (June 22), without giving further details.

Rasul Dahri. Screencap from YouTube

Rasul Dahri. Screencap from YouTube

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SINGAPORE — A Facebook post defending local religious preacher Rasul Dahri — whose books were recently banned here — is being investigated by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), said Communications and Information Minister Yaacob Ibrahim on Thursday (June 22), without giving further details.

Online Islamic Bookshelf Dot Com was first flagged by SMRT Feedback by The Vigilanteh, a self-styled online vigilante group, for coming to Mr Rasul’s defence.

In response to TODAY’s queries, the police confirmed that a report had been lodged and they are looking into the matter. In a post on its Facebook page, the online religious book retailer said Mr Rasul does not propagate violence, since if that is the case “the majority of his followers long time bomb here and there (sic)”.

The post also said that if Islam “is a religion of terrorist”, the majority of non-Muslims would have already died as there have been “millions of Muslims around the world for centuries”.

 

In an interview via Facebook with TODAY, the founder of the online retailer, who gave her name as Nur Fashihah, admitted to writing the post. She also said that on Wednesday she had posted an old video on Facebook in which Mr Rasul claimed he had been wrongly accused of instigating terrorism. “If a person clearly supports terrorism, I would not support such a person,” said Ms Fashihah, 31. 

Ms Fashihah, who set up her online bookshop in 2011, said she stopped selling Mr Rasul’s books a few years ago because they “did not sell well”. 

On Tuesday, the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) banned nine publications by the controversial preacher because his videos and publications are “exclusivist in nature and dangerous in that they promote enmity, strife and potentially violence not only towards Muslims, but also other religious communities and the state”.

In a separate statement, the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Muis) also said that the Asatizah Recognition Board had rejected an application by Mr Rasul to be part of a scheme that recognises religious teachers and scholars who meet the minimum standards of qualification to preach and teach Islam here.

Several local asatizahs (religious teachers) interviewed by TODAY agreed that there is a need to denounce materials that seek to propagate violence or sow discord. 

Mr Fathurrahman Dawoed, a director of private Islamic school Al-Zuhri Institute, said that while some people might view such publications as harmless, experts in the field of Islamic  knowledge are in a better position to analyse such publications and make a judgment call.

In the case of Mr Rasul’s books, the religious authorities here would have conducted due diligence in examining them and concluding that they might harm the social fabric here, he added.

Mr Tarmizi Abdul Wahid, who runs Safinah Institute, a centre for Islamic education, said that extremist messages do not necessarily have to talk explicitly about killing people or bombing places.

It could come in the form of exclusivist messages which could influence a person to gravitate towards “dangerous ideas” which, in turn, could lead to thoughts such as “my version of Islam is better than yours”, he added.

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