[GarryPaterson]

Salam brothers and sisters,

I was quite busy yesterday after my last response so I could not reply.

Jazakallah-khair brother faizol for your excellent response.

Alhamdulillah I happen to live in a state which is controlled by Opposition Coalition of which the Islamist party is a part of, so there have been no issues with dakwah in the state so far. I even attended mufti Menk recent talk in Malaysia as well. I don't deny there many ways of getting by this law, but the existence of 'licensing' dakwah as far as I am concerned is what worries me much. Brother maripat point as well needs to be taken, being clean shaven is not just about being clean shaven it is a sign that the person is ignorant of the sunnah, or knows it is sunnah and openly goes against it. The judges as well are not qualified on this matter.

On the ruling party, I know of many people as well in there that trying to do just that, but as supporter of the Islamists I understand all too well the ruling party is rotten to the core. The leadership is rotten, the succession is rotten, they are so extremely corrupt they fear if hudud were to be implemented. I doubt they can ever change. Only Allah can change the hearts of these tyrants.

I agree the freedom to teach could be open to abuse as well, but I believe that should apply to formal teaching, not dakwah activities. We just want to attract people to Islam. Then we can bring them to the right scholars or schools or our masjid to learn more from those more learned that ourselves.

On sister ummuseif's response,

I believe she is reference Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin, the former Mufti of the state of Perlis in Malaysia. There is a definite wahabi/salafi leaning in his writings, but he has so far as always stuck with the Shafi'i school of Fiqh as far as my experience of listening and attending his talks and reading his books. I have also been with another scholar who is all out anti-Wahabi (as he states) but he does come a little short in evidence from he has presented in his books (he goes by the name of Ustaz Zamihan, those of you who have met him, would understand why I say so). I agree very much with your statement that those british educated, 'secularised' muslims (like some of my own family members) are relearning Islam from these people. I see them refraining from making doa and dzikr in congregation, the prefer to perform their nafil prayers away from others. They don't go for tarawih in congregation in Ramadhan. However, they have their sources that support some of their arguments.

I believe that there are other avenues they can use to stop the propagation of the Rafidi and Ahmadiyyah deviants. These isn't enough education going on about these movements, especially the Rafidi's as the government does not want to sour relations with Iran. Again this is where dakwah will have to come in to place. I have had non-muslim colleagues at work ask me what's the difference between muslims like me and these Iranians shia, are we like Roman Catholics and Protestants. Alhamdulillah since I have been a member of this forum the best evidence has come from brother tripolysunni which has many times assisted me in explaining the deviant teachnings and shirk of the shia to others. However, with this law, they can charge me teaching without accreditation when me only goal is to just remove doubts in others minds, dakwah, and to spread Islam. This is my problem with it.