Some 40 NGO representatives and activists have lodged police report against Perlis mufti Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin over a poem the latter published on his Facebook account yesterday.

Among others, each of the highly similar reports accuse the mufti of making a seditious speech aimed at causing hatred by Muslims against Hindus.

The group’s spokesperson, P Raja Retinam, said Mohd Asri as a mufti should know better than to insult other religions, and the government should remove him from his post immediately.

“Mufti is the highest position in the state. He is supposed to advise the sultan and the state on religious matters.

“How can we have such a person sitting in the highest position talking bad about other religions, other practices,” he told reporters after the police reports had been lodged at the Sentul district police headquarters today.

He claimed that this is part of a nationwide campaign to lodge police reports against Mohd Asri over the poem. Separate police reports were also lodged against the controversial preacher Zakir Naik.

Separate police reports were also lodged against the controversial preacher Zakir Naik, which urged the government to take action against him.

Mohd Asri had clarified this morning that his poem refers to the administration of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and not Hindus.

In the Malay-language poem, Mohd Asri had made references to “cow worshippers” uniting to “trouble our preacher” and send the preacher “the despotic government that worships fire and practices sati (widow burning)”. The practice of sati had been abolished and outlawed in India.

Mohd Asri continued, “Here, they never thanked for what they have. Instead they colluded to cause trouble. We cannot remain silent; tolerance and patience has its limits”.

The poem is widely seen as a reference to urgings that predominantly came from Hindu groups for Zakir’s deportation back to India.

The mufti explained this morning that “cow worshippers” is actually a reference to India, for supposedly allowing Muslims to be killed for supposedly eating beef although the consumption of beef is widespread all around the world.

“The poem is for the current state of India. I believe that in our country, we are all highly educated and would not worship animals such as the cow, or revere it. What more to kill another person for consuming it,” he said.

He said the poem had nothing to do with people in Malaysia, who would not indulge in “superstitions” described in his poem.

Raja Retinam is the chairperson of Persatuan Rapat Malaysia. Other groups present today include Tamiler Otrumai Kudumbum and the Malaysia Hindu Sangam.