Sarawak Mufti’s Office rules these wriggling creatures unclean, Muslims must not consume them

KUCHING: The Sarawak Mufti’s Office has announced that Muslims must not consume sago grubs.

It said sago grubs are of unclean nature and live in two environments.

This could be a revelation, especially among Melanau Muslims and the larger Muslim community in the state who are known to value them as a delicacy.

State mufti Datu Kipli Yassin said the decision was based on scientific evidence and research.

“We would not come to a conclusion without doing research first and foremost. The decision was made with scientific evidence to support it,” he added, referring to the debate in the Muslim community on whether they should be prohibited from consuming them.

He was speaking to reporters during a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signing ceremony between the state government and University of Technology Malaysia (UTM) to boost its fatwa research sector yesterday.

In making the announcement, the Sarawak Mufti’s Office also said Muslims were prohibited from participating in the Kaul Festival and ‘miring’ ceremony as they were traditionally done by the Iban community.

“There is nothing wrong with Muslims attending or witnessing these ceremonies, so long as they don’t partake in it or conduct it themselves. This is because the event and ceremony have ‘syirik’ elements in it,” added Kipli.

Meanwhile, the office also announced that another type of grub, known as ‘temilok’ (a kind of shipworm found inside mangrove tree trunks), which is also a popular delicacy among the Melanau community, was not prohibited.

Kipli said this ruling was made after they conducted a research on its nature and way of living.

Present at the MoU ceremony were State Islamic Council (Mais) chairman Datu Putit Matzen and Prof Dr Arieff Salleh Rosman.