Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir said although basically all matters involving Islamic religious administration were bound by the state Islamic Religious Administration Enactment 1992, the state government always studied and sought the best method of selecting members for the mosque committees.
"Selection through an AGM poses some limitations and there is great possibility that the voters are not part of the area's congregation, so they don't know the affairs of that mosque nor do they have the expertise to administer it," he said in reply to a question from Abu Bakar Hussain (PAS-Titi Serong) at the state assembly sitting, here, Wednesday.
Zambry said most states did not use the AGM to select their mosque committees but through nominations decided by their Islamic Religious Council, whereby in Perak, for instance, the nominations were made by the penghulu, religious administrative officers and the district chieftains.
On religious teachers (guru takmir agama) who were sacked, Zambry admitted that the action was taken by the religious administrative authorities after they were found to have done wrong.
"Most of them were invited by the mosque administration to impart religious knowledge to the local community. The lectures were organised by the respective mosques, while the state government only gave the authorisation to teach, besides monitoring before taking action following complaints on problems posed by these religious teachers," he said.
Zambry said they should just be teaching religion instead of using the mosque to promote their political ideology.
"From the legal aspect, the state government cannot take action against mosques which prevent such religious teachers from teaching at the mosques, as this comes under the jurisdiction of the state Islamic Religious Council, which is chaired by the Regent of Perak, Raja Dr Nazrin Shah."
He advised all guru takmir agama in the state to carry out their responsibilities well and impart only the true teachings of Islam to the Muslim community.
"We must preserve unity, so keep politics out of the mosques. It's sad today that some mosques are not used as a place to forge unity, while in some countries, people have been massacred in mosques."
-- BERNAMA
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