Penang Mufti Wan Salim Wan Mohd Noor has urged Muslims not to keep silent about the killings of civilians in Syria.

He also called for the Malaysian government and the rakyat, regardless of their faiths, to extend humanitarian assistance to those in Syria to relieve their suffering.

“Assistance can be channelled through NGOs like Aman Palestine, Global Peace, Malaysian Islamic Organisations Consultative Council (Mapim), Isma and so on.

“Keeping quiet on issues like this might be misinterpreted by some to mean we do not care about the plight of our Muslim brothers and sisters,” Wan Salim is quoted as saying in Sinar Harian today.

The “civil war” in Syria is not easy to talk about, he said, as there are many aspects of it that needed to be taken into account.

The intervention of foreign powers, especially the US, Russia, Iran and Saudi Arabia, whether directly or through their own proxies, only added to the chaos and disorder in the country, he said.

“I think the Security Council of the United Nations (UN) should convene immediately to pressure these “superpower” countries to withdraw their troops.

“Enough. Stop intervention (by foreign powers) in this crisis immediately,” he said.

Wan Salim also called on the UN to urge Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad to hold a democratic poll immediately, under the supervision of an independent commission set up by the UN itself.

“Every party involved must respect the will of the Syrian people,” he said.