Datuk Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki said Jakim will contact and arrange an interview date with lawyer Siti Kasim (pic) over reported remarks on God’s existence. — Picture by Choo Choy May

KUALA LUMPUR, April 2 — Lawyer Siti Kasim will be summoned to clarify her reported remarks relating to God’s existence in an interview with a Chinese news outlet that purportedly deviates from the Islamic faith, a deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Department said today.

Datuk Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki said the Islamic Development Department of Malaysia (Jakim) will contact and arrange an interview date with the vocal lawyer and human rights activist, national news agency Bernama reported.

“We’re not trying to degrade her but is it true what she said? We want to hear from her lips first but when summoned, don’t fail to turn up,” he was quoted telling reporters in Pasir Puteh, Kelantan after officiating an event there.

Asyraf was also reported adding that Jakim is not empowered to take legal action against Siti, but that the state Islamic Department can take action based the relevant enactments relating to crime, faith and the dissemination of matters that can damage Islam.

The deputy minister in charge of Islamic affairs was reported to be responding to Siti’s online interview with an unnamed Chinese news outlet a few years ago.

Siti last month filed a police complaint after receiving death threats from Facebook users over her alleged remarks on God.

She told Malay Mail Online when contacted on March 22 that the decapitation threats were made after a fundamentalist Malay-language portal, Menara.my, published an article titled “Melalui getaran, kita menghasilkan Tuhan — Siti Kasim” (Through vibrations, we create God — Siti Kasim) that she said had “manipulated” her interview with Chinese-language portal pocketimes.my.

She sent Malay Mail Online screenshots of other Facebook users who said things like “if it were up to me, I would have chopped off this CT Kasim’s head already... traitor to the religion and destroyer of the faith of Muslims in these times”.