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In the Islamists version of hell, that is the one in Malaysia, voting against the PAS is a vote to hell.

This is part of the campaign to promote a united PAS-UMNO front in Malaysia, and the elite of the Islamist party are going national in their attacks against Muslims who are resistant to the idea.

“It is important to unite PAS and UMNO in order to eliminate the DAP,” says a WhatsApp group message.

The group – unknown since the name is not published on the posting in a pro-opposition Facebook page – changed its Icon to that of a PAS-UMNO hand shake.

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The message continue: “If you want to enter hell, you can vote DAP.”

But if you wan to enter paradise.”Vote PAS”

The message does not end there.

It goes further into declaring – similar to an Islamic edict or Fatwa – that people who does not vote the PAS will be made ‘kafir harbi.”

The threats are not new in Malaysia.

On 23 June 2016, the Mufti of Pahang shocked Malaysians by stating that it is a sin for Muslims to support the Democratic Action Party (DAP), which he labelled as Kafir Harbi (infidels against whom war can be waged).

The statement received mixed reactions from the Muslims: some voiced their support while many opposed it. For non-Muslims, it became a source of fear, given recent threats announced by the Malaysian Islamic State (IS) based in Syria, and the first bombing incident by IS in Malaysia.

Following the overall rejection of the labeling by Muslim scholars and intellectuals who claimed that the label was invalid and unsuitable under contemporary circumstances, the Prime Minister’s Office announced that no Malaysians should be placed under the Kafir Harbi category.

There is in Malaysia an unfortunate practice of using the term Kafir Harbi for political reasons, and for demonising certain opposition political parties and certain non-Muslim groups.