Yoga ban by Malaysian Islamic group draws fire
Council says don't question fatwa
One of Malaysia's highest Islamic bodies came under fire from Muslims and yogis Sunday after its chairman said yoga was forbidden for Muslims because the practice would weaken religious faith.
Devotees of yoga and moderate Muslim groups criticized the ruling by Abdul Shukor Husin, chairman of the government-backed National Fatwa Council. Yoga is hugely popular in majority-Muslim Malaysia.
Physical versus spiritual
"I don't think it had caused any Muslim to convert to Hinduism, neither has it weakened their faith," said Norhayati Kaprawi, an official with Sisters of Islam, a private group which champions the rights of Muslim women.
"It is just an exercise like tai chi, which has its roots in Buddism," she told the Star newspaper on Sunday. She said her group's staff had been holding yoga classes for the past year and that they would continue.
Rulings by the Fatwa Council are not legally binding on the country's Muslims, and there are no laws to punish those who ignore Council decisions -- but it is an enormously influential body.
Abdul Shukor decreed that yoga was forbidden because it involves the recitation of mantras and that it encourages a union with God that is considered blasphemy in Islam.
"The practice will erode their faith in the religion," he said on Saturday. "It does not conform with Islam."
But Sheikh Fawzi al-Zifzaf from al-Azhar in Egypt, the oldest center of Islamic learning, said there was a difference between physical practice and worship. But he warned that should the physical practice of Yoga lead to worship it would be forbidden.
"Yoga practice as physical exercise that teaches the body to be patient and poised is allowed in Islam," Fawzi told alArabiya.net.
"However, if the initial stages of yoga practice lead to advanced ones which involve a change in psychological religious views of the practitioner, then it becomes forbidden because it jeopardizes the beliefs of the Muslim," he said.
Yoga, an ancient Indian aid to meditation dating back thousands of years, is a popular stress-buster in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.
Muslim yoga teacher Siti Suheila Merican said that while yoga practice should not involve worshipping, the physical movements were good for improving health.
"Worldwide it has been accepted as an exercise for health benefits," she said to the Star newspaper.
If the initial stages of yoga practice lead to advanced ones which involve a change in psychological religious views of the practitioner, then it becomes forbidden because it jeopardizes the beliefs of the MuslimSheikh Fawzi al-Zifzaf, al-Azhar
Move to conservatism
A veteran opposition lawmaker, Lim Kit Siang, said that the edict showed that Malaysia was heading towards a conservative type of Islam which could divide the multiracial country.
"It is sending a most unfortunate message that Malaysia, instead of moving towards a moderate and universal Islam, is moving towards an opposite direction which will create divisions," he told AFP.
Islam is the official religion of Malaysia, where more than 60 percent of the population of 27 million are Muslim Malays who practice a conservative version of the faith.
About 25 percent of the population is ethnic Chinese and eight percent is ethnic Indian, most of whom are Hindus.
Shukor reminded non-Muslims that they should not question the fatwa, or religious ruling. "This is not something for non-Muslims to interfere in or question as this matter involves Muslims and their faith," he said in anticipation of a backlash on the decision.
It is sending a most unfortunate message that Malaysia, instead of moving towards a moderate and universal Islam, is moving towards an opposite direction which will create divisionsLim Kit Siang, opposition lawmaker