KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 21 ― The National Fatwa Council should issue a fatwa (religious edict) to bar investments in companies that contribute to the annual haze crisis, a Muslim group said today.
A leader from the group, Sheikh Abd Kareem Said Khadaied, said the council also has to make a stand on whether existing investments in the firms responsible for the burning of forests in Indonesia can continue to be listed as “Shariah-compliant”.
“Meaning if Company A does burning, that means it is doing something that is contradicting Islam, therefore the investment in this company cannot be called Shariah-compliant.
“So we need the National Fatwa Council to issue a clear fatwa on the law on burning forests for profit and whether companies that are listed in the Shariah index can do it. If not, they must be removed,” the secretary-general of Pertubuhan Tarekat Muktabar Malaysia (Pertama) told reporters today.
If a fatwa is issued against these companies, this would mean that bodies such as Muslim pilgrims fund Tabung Haji and Amanah Saham Bumiputera cannot invest in them, he said.
Earlier in the same media conference, Sheikh Abd Kareem and other Malay-Muslim groups had announced that they plan to file a class action suit in one month's time against companies that conduct land-clearing in Indonesia through forest fires.
They also said that a boycott may be launched against these firms, but noted that they are still finalising their investigations and will first give these companies time to own up and offer solutions.
The annual haze problem in the region is said to be caused by land-clearing activities for agriculture in Indonesia.
Malaysian firms that have oil palm plantations in Indonesia have in the past denied using fires to clear land there.
Schools have been forced to close down several days in Malaysia and some flights have been cancelled due to the haze, while the battle to control fires in Indonesia had been hampered by dry conditions and the peat soil of many forest fire sites there.
On Monday, news agency Reuters reported that Center for International Forestry Research's scientist Herry Purnomo suggesting that the haze problem may last until this December or next January, owing to the opening up of new areas for agriculture such as palm oil plantations.
Reuters said Indonesia's national disaster management agency's latest forecast for the putting out of forest fires there is early November.
