KUALA LUMPUR, April 21 — A report of a National Fatwa Council edict against Muslims using the phrase “rest in peace” allegedly issued following Karpal Singh's death is doubly untrue, a Muslim lawyers group said today.
According to the Muslim Lawyers Association of Malaysia (PPMM), not only did an online news portal misrepresent the alleged timing of the purported fatwa, it also misconstrued an opinion published on the Fatwa Council's blog as an edict proper.
“Upon perusal of the website, PPMM found that there was never listed in any of the 'Senarai Fatwa Malaysia' be it either at national or state level, a fatwa on this issue by the National Fatwa Council.
“PPMM however have found that there was an opinion issued by the bloghost dated 12 December 2013 in a question and answer column,” it said in a statement today.
Checks by The Malay Mail Online of the National Fatwa Council website also did not yield results of the purported fatwa, and only returned the blog entry mentioned by the group.
On Thursday, a news portal published a report alleging that the Islamic council issued an edict banning the Muslim use of the phrase “rest in peace” and its abbreviation, RIP, just when they spread across social media as users expressed sympathies over Karpal's accidental death.
Fatwas are opinions issued by Islamic clerics on a multitude of issues. Although these are advisory in nature, Malaysia occasionally gazettes some into law.
Karpal, 74, was killed after the Toyota Alphard MPV he was travelling in crashed following a collision with a lorry along the North-South Highway near Gopeng, Perak at about 1.10am on Thursday.
