Persatuan Ulama Malaysia (PUM) is protesting against liberal Indonesian Islamic leader Ulil Abshar Abdalla, who is due to arrive in Kuala Lumpur on Oct 18 to attend a roundtable discussion.

Ulil Abshar has questioned too many Islamic texts and has even demoted Islamic affairs, PUM secretary-general Mohd Roslan Mohd Nor said in a statement today.

"This is synonym to his movement called Jaringan Islam Liberal (JIL, or Liberal Islamic Movement) and his way of thinking is declared illegal in Indonesia and Malaysia," he added.

"The presence of Ulil Abshar ( right ) is inappropriate and is deemed to challenge the Islamic authority of this country.

"Hence, we urge the Islamic Development Department and the authorities to take action so that his Islamic liberal ideas, which are considered illegal in Malaysia, will not spread here," he said.

Ulil Abshar is due to attend the roundtable discussion on 'Religious fundamentalism threat in this century' organised by the Islamic Renaissance Front (IRF) on Oct 18.

The 47-year-old, who hails from Jawa, holds a doctorate from Harvard University.

Meanwhile, Global Movement of Moderates (GMM) chief executive officer Saifuddin Abdullah clarified that the discussion is not hosted by the foundation.

This despite promotional material for the event indicating that it will be at GMM's headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.

"We are not co-organisers. The organsers IRF used to use our office facilities, but this time there was a miscommunication.

"They didn't know that we are using our facilites for a media workshop on that day. We have informed them," he told Malaysiakini .

IRF president Dr Farouk Musa, meanwhile, told the portal that IRF will be issuing a statement on the matter.