Tan Sri Annuar Musa was accused of saying Islam allowed racism as long as it did not oppress other groups. — File pic

PETALING JAYA, Sept 17 — The Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) should take action against Umno supreme council member Tan Sri Annuar Musa for depicting Islam as amenable to racism, PKR’s Latheefa Koya said today.

Latheefa was referring to Annuar’s admission during the #Merah169 rally yesterday that he was “racist”, but justified this using a hadith (a saying of the Prophet) on asabiyyah, an Arabic term for tribalism, which he interpreted as allowing racism so long as it did not oppress other groups.

“Let me remind him that asabiyyah is not an Islamic principle, asabiyyah is a pre-Islamic during the dark ages (zaman Jahiliyah), a principle where people are clannish or tribal, they stick together and they work for tribal interests.

“So he is trying to say that Islam allows asabiyyah therefore Islam allows racism. That is completely wrong and it’s very irresponsible, and we want Jakim to ask him to correct himself or now we will have to go around telling the people, especially the Malay Muslims, that Umno is saying that Islam is racist,” she said during a press conference today.

She added that Annuar’s statement was “insulting” Islam and that action must be taken against the Ketereh MP to ensure there were no double standards.

Annuar yesterday admitted that he, along with the “Himpunan Rakyat Bersatu” was “racist” in nature, but insisted that this was still in line with Islamic teachings.

Tan Sri Annuar Musa maintained that acting in defence of Malay honour was permitted in Islam so long as other races were not oppressed in the process.