Muslims making mountain of Cadbury molehill but blind to graft, says ex-Perlis mufti

KUALA LUMPUR, May 28 — Muslim outrage here over Cadbury’s porcine-tainted chocolates far eclipses their response to greater sins such as corruption and exaggerates the gravity of the issue, former Perlis Mufti Datuk Dr Asri Zainul Abidin said today.



The Islamic scholar said that while it was commendable for Muslims to protest against Cadbury as it was within their rights as consumers, they should not go overboard or go through “extreme” lengths in doing so.



“It is unfortunate that at the same time we are not up in arms against matters which are clearly ‘haram’ such as usury, corruption, misuse of public funds and so on.



“This is the Islamic understanding of only thinking that pork is ‘haram’ but not gambling, usury or corruption, despite the fact that the sins from these are bigger than consuming pork,” he wrote in a posting on his official Facebook page this morning, which has so far garnered over 26,000 likes and 9,000 shares.



Asri pointed out that Islam is not a “nonsensical and troublesome” religion, and that if a Muslim unknowingly consumes pork, he or she would not be punished by Allah.



He said that calls by some people for “blood transfusions” to cleanse one’s blood due to consumption of the tainted Cadbury products was “excessive” and “extreme”.(cont)