PERLIS mufti Dr Asri Zainal Abidin, who courted controversy last week when he posted a poem that allegedly criticised Hindus for deifying cows, today questioned if the animal regarded as sacred by Hindus, was above people.

He wrote on his Facebook page today that even women and children are being victimised in India because cows were regarded more important.

He raised this question while highlighting a news article posted on PressTV on Saturday about a group of cow vigilantes attacking a Muslim family in Kashmir, India.

“Read about the fate of our Muslim brothers, or at least our fellow humans. Is the animal above everything that even women and children fall victim?” Asri said.

According to the article, the family, including a nine-year-old girl, were injured in the attack allegedly carried out by a right-wing Hindu group.

The girl suffered multiple fractures while another child, aged 10, went missing following the incident. The family did not know if the boy was still alive.

A member of the family said their attackers hit even the elderly in the household, and threatened to kill the family and dispose their bodies in the river.

Local police said the attackers also took the family’s livestock of 16 cows and a number of goats and sheep.

“What is the most suitable term to use to describe such a situation in India?

“Then, is it appropriate to have an organisation in Malaysia that places its loyalty in India?” Asri said.

The popular Islamic scholar and preacher was slammed by the Malaysia Hindu Sangam yesterday, with the group demanding an apology from him over the poem.

The group’s president R.S. Mohan had said it did not matter to Hindus that Asri had removed the offending poem from his Facebook page earlier yesterday, as the damage was already done.

Mohan, who is also deputy president of the interfaith group, Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism, said the Hindu community would not be accepting his explanation.

When his poem was criticised, Asri said it was targeted at India President Narendra Modi’s government, and not at Malaysian Hindus.

Before he removed it from his Facebook page, he wrote that he felt offended that several non-Muslim groups were not appreciative of the Perlis Mufti Department’s efforts to treat everyone fairly, citing as examples the department’s treatment of the issues of unilateral child conversion and zakat (tithe) for non-Muslims in the state. – April 24, 2017.