KUALA LUMPUR, June 29 — Amid calls for compulsory immunisation, Malaysia’s anti-vaccination movement is refusing to back down and appears to have gained a celebrity advocate in the form of nasyid singer Mohd Suhaimi Saad.

The former member of popular nasyid group In-Team said he does not vaccinate his children nor give them clinical medicine but instead preferred to rely on following Islamic practices for newborns and reading Quranic versus to drinking water for his family’s health.

"My four children are not vaccinated. I don’t like it. But for other people’s children, it is up to them,” he wrote on his Facebook page yesterday.

"What I do practise is making sure each of them are breastfed for two years, as it is written in the Al-Quran. To tahnik [swab their palate] with dates or honey as was taught by the prophet s.a.w.,” he added.

Mohd Suhaimi, who is formerly of the nasyid group In-Team, added that he also practices the eating of habbatus sauda (black cumin) as it was recommended by the prophet as well.

"Because habbatus sawda can heal every illness except death. Insya Allah,” he said.

"When my child is sick, I read verses from the Al-Quran over some water to give it to them to drink, or to rub it on the area that hurts,” he added.

 At time of writing, the post had garnered 2,532 shares and over 3,300 comments that largely condemned his actions.

"Please keep your children away from other children, we don’t want diseases to spread. Hopefully your children will always be protected by Allah. Amin,” wrote Facebook user Fauziah Ramli in Malay.

"We cannot ignore the medicine of hospitals. The observations of doctors are much more thorough. We don’t know the illnesses that will harm our children or ourselves. We have to think about our children’s future. We have to prevent [illnesses] before it is too late, and in the end, it will be to the hospital that you will look for,” another Facebook user Saiful Epu posted, also in Malay.

However, Mohd Suhaimi also received support by users defending his right to have an opinion.

The singer himself responded to the brickbats in a following post, declaring that "Allah is all powerful, vaccines have no power.”

"Even if you vaccinate a hundred times, if Allah says you will be sick, you will still get sick. What more if the vaccine contains something haram,” he said.

The spotlight fell on Malaysia’s anti-vaccination movement again recently after a former contestant of the local Imam Muda reality TV series, Ammar Wan Harun, reportedly posted online that too much fuss was being made over the deaths of children who were not vaccinated.

The post was condemned by condemned by Health director-general Datuk Noor Hisham Abdullah last week, calling it a "shameful act” for someone calling himself an "imam muda”.

The Islamic Medical Association of Malaysia has also expressed concern over the return of diphtheria that it noted had been long gone in the country, noting that it was due to a number of parents refusing to follow the Health Ministry’s policies and advice to vaccinate their children.

Perlis Mufti Datuk Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin later said that Muslims who refused to vaccinate their children were going against the teachings of Islam.

Some Muslim Malaysians reject vaccinations for fear that they contain pig DNA. National newswire Bernama reported Kelantan Mufti Datuk Mohamad Shukri Mohamad as saying last month, however, that vaccinations are allowed in Islam even though they may contain "haram” substances.