The Muslim Scholars Association of Malaysia (MSAM) lodged a report today against business weekly The Edge and writer Dr Farish A Noor for allegedly insulting Islam in an article published on Dec 3.

MSAM president Abdul Ghani Samsudin lodged the report with the Federal Territory religious affairs department under sections 7 and 8 of the state's Syariah Penal Code.

In his report, Ghani accused Farish, a weekly columnist for malaysiakini and New Straits Times, of "insulting the Prophet and the sanctity of the religion by belittling verses in the Quran and Hadith".

"He (Farish) has purposely and knowingly insulted Islam verbally," said Ghani, in a press statement.

In the interview published under the column 'Minding their own biz', Farish was asked by interviewer Amir Muhammad:"Wouldn't they say that Islam, unlike other faiths, is a political religion with means of state governance encoded into it?"

Farish had replied: "That's a smart and tactical way of reading the Islamic past in terms of the present. They play around with the facts of history in such a cavalier manner. There was no such thing as an Islamic state, even in the Prophet's time. There were no states as such. What you had was a tribal, proto-feudal system, and the Prophet himself, in his specific historical context was a tribal leader and the early oaths of allegiance were given to him as a tribal leader rather than just a religious leader. That's something we always forget..."

When answering another question, Farish had said:"There is a desperate need for Malay Muslims to break free from the hegemonic grips of both the ulama (Muslim scholar) and the state by reclaiming Islam for themselves. Islam is a discourse and all discourses are open, contested and plastic. If I can contribute in any way to keeping the doors to ijtihad (personal interpretation) open, I will do it. The danger of not doing is so great."

'Prejudice and hatred'

Ghani said Farish had insulted Islam by acknowledging the Prophet as a mere tribal leader and not a leader of the religion.

"He (Farish) also said that women and friends of the Prophet pledged allegiance to Him as a leader and not as a prophet," said Ghani.

"It is an insult to say that the Prophet is respected as an Arab and not as a Prophet," he added.

Ghani also said Farish's "prejudice and hatred" for the ulama was evident in his writings published in malaysiakini and NST.

"Even in this interview (in The Edge), Farish has repeated his stand by saying that Islam should be interpreted freely without referring to the ulama," he said.