KOTA KINABALU, Nov 13 —  Ten members of the Malaysian chapter of pan-Islamism group Hizbut Tahrir here staged a peaceful protest at the Sabah Islamic authorities building here against a fatwa, or religious decree, declaring the group "deviant”.

The group also attempted to hand over a memorandum protesting the fatwa but state mufti Datuk Bungsu Aziz Jaafar refused to accept it, leaving it to an unidentified officer of the state religious department.

"We wanted to meet with him to talk and ask for a review of the fatwa. We waited for him to finish a meeting and then got to see him for about four minutes only,” said representative Hamidan Jorhan.

He said the memorandum expressed the group’s utmost protest to the fatwa which it claimed was based on lies and untruths.

"We are also disappointed with the authorities for reaching such a decision without any discussion with anyone from Hizbut Tahrir. From what we can tell from the fatwa, the reasons stated for the fatwa is a direct copy from the Selangor state fatwa,” he said.

"It is a sad day for us, that such a religious institution can do that after a two day meeting and only come up with a copy-and-paste version of a fatwa. We see it as a political move to stop Hizbut Tahrir from its mission.

The group had gathered outside Wisma Muis at about 11.30am and left after about 30 minutes.

In August, the Sabah state fatwa council banned 16 "deviant teachings”, including hardliners Hizbut Tahrir in a sweeping move. The pro-caliphate Muslim group is similarly banned in Selangor.

In Malaysia, only the Sunni denomination of Islam and its Shafie school of jurisprudence are considered official.

Along with another banned group, the Islamic minority Ahmadiyyah, Hizbut Tahrir said the fatwa was unfair and should have been discussed beforehand with the groups. State mufti Bungsu Aziz had said that the fatwa decision did not require any dialogue.