KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 19 — Controversial columnist Ridhuan Tee Abdullah suggested today that the Buddhist group in the Johor surau row had deliberately misused the venue for their worship, despite knowing their actions would affect Muslim sensitivities.

The outspoken Chinese Muslim insisted that suraus belong exclusively to Muslims, from their usage as a place for Islamic worship to the actual word “surau”, which he said non-Muslims should be barred from using like the word “Allah”.

“Yes, I don’t deny that Islam is universal, but being universal does not mean we can share a god or a house of worship, like other religions,” the Utusan Malaysia columnist wrote today in an article titled “Surau jadi tokong: Jahil atau sengaja? (Surau as a temple: ignorant or deliberate?).

“I don’t dispute this if it happened in a non-Islamic country. But in Malaysia, as an Islamic country, certainly I cannot accept it,” Tee added, later citing Singapore as a non-Islamic country where he had prayed in a “multi-faith prayer room” at Changi Airport.

Malaysia’s Federal Constitution states that the country’s official religion is Islam.

He criticised the resort owner in the Johor incident, saying the man’s intention of presenting Islam as a universal and tolerant religion was illogical.

“Don’t be too excited with the 1 Malaysia concept, until everything can be shared,” he said.

As an example, Tee also pointed out that the word “surau” is included in a long list of words that are claimed as exclusive to Muslims, with the Arabic word “Allah” also listed by him.

“Clearly, the word ‘surau’ is also terpelihara (preserved). How can they use surau as a temple on the principle of guna sama (same use). Looks odd, but this is Malaysia’s unique point,” he said.

“Oddly, with the issues recently, could it be that they don’t know such matters are sensitive? I think they purposely do it. When it becomes an issue and controversy, then apologise and close file,” he added.

Tee also questioned why non-Muslims had used the surau, claiming that the number of non-Muslim places of worship in Malaysia were far more than the number of mosques and Muslim prayer rooms.

“In this issue, why was the surau targeted? Aren’t there already many non-Muslim places of worship in the whole country compared to surau (and) mosques?

“Furthermore, they can fulfil their obligations even without buildings. Their statues can be placed in any open space that is deemed suitable,” he argued.

Yesterday, the Home Ministry stripped the Singaporean resort owner of his Malaysian permanent resident (PR) status.

The Muslim resort owner, 45, was arrested last Monday and remanded for four days for a police probe under section 295 of the Penal Code, which comes under the heading of injuring or defiling a place of worship.

Last week, the Buddhist Maha Vihara — a group representing Malaysian Buddhists — apologised over the meditation session in the surau, while also urging followers of the religion to be mindful of others in their worship.

The surau incident in Johor is the latest in a growing number of cases seen by the Muslim community as insulting Islam, including a Chinese couple’s Ramadan greeting on Facebook featuring a pork dish and an Aidilfitri video featuring a Muslim dog trainer and her three pet dogs.