Just recently, a controversial sermon that was delivered by a Malaysian Islamic preacher, Ustaz Syakir Nasoha had resurfaced and gone viral, sparking fury among netizens.
In brief, the sermon contains some defamatory remarks especially towards non-Muslim believers such as Hindus and Buddhists. Syakir reminded Muslims of the notorious things that the non-Muslims had done to them in other countries. Additionally, wild remarks were also made towards the Dayak community where they were said to have raped and slaughtered Muslims in Indonesia and Papa New Guinea.
The Sun Daily had also reported that a number of 3,000 police reports had been lodged across the country in hope that stern actions to be taken against the preacher.
In regards to this heated issue, Ustaz Syakir Nasoha has finally responded.
The video was allegedly taken out of context
In a video that was uploaded onto YouTube on 5 October, Syakir said that the sermon that he delivered back in December 2017 was cut down and taken out of context which immediately caused a misunderstanding among the non-Muslims.
“I was just preaching what was stated in the Quran and not criticizing other religions,” he emphasized.
According to The Malaysian Insight, he also added that his sermon was meant only for the Muslims and he never asked for it to be recorded. He said that when the video was cut down and shown to the non-Muslims, that was probably how the misunderstandings began to occur.
“This hadith (a record of sayings, actions or tacit approval of Prophet Muhammad) cannot be understood by just looking at one video. We as Muslims also take many years to study Islam.”
Meanwhile, he also explained that he was simply relaying the prophet’s message to the people.
The usage of the term “Kafir”
Syakir thinks that a lot of people have also misunderstood the meaning of Kafir, which simply means non-Muslims in Arab, regardless of their race.
“Maybe they think kafir means bad people,” he explained his thoughts.
In the video, he assured that he has nothing against the other religions nor races and he even asks for help from Chinese and Indians at times, stating that Islam does not forbid its people from conducting business with the other religions and races.
The full video of the original sermon can be watched here.
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