As jingoism rises, Mat Sabu says Prophet Muhammad was a refugee too
PARLIAMENT | Amid a climate of anti-migrant sentiments, including against refugees, Amanah president Mohamad Sabu has reminded the people that important figures in Islam were also once refugees.
This he said, included the Prophet Muhammad, who had to flee from Mecca to Madinah after his life came under threat.
Mohamad also cited Jaafar Abi Talib, who similarly led a group of persecuted Muslims out of Mecca to modern-day Ethiopia, to seek refuge in the Christian kingdom of Aksum.
"There are terrible words being said of refugees, threatening their...
PARLIAMENT | Amid a climate of anti-migrant sentiments, including against refugees, Amanah president Mohamad Sabu has reminded the people that important figures in Islam were also once refugees.
This he said, included the Prophet Muhammad, who had to flee from Mecca to Madinah after his life came under threat.
Mohamad also cited Jaafar Abi Talib, who similarly led a group of persecuted Muslims out of Mecca to modern-day Ethiopia, to seek refuge in the Christian kingdom of Aksum.
"There are terrible words being said of refugees, threatening their lives. When they flee to Malaysia, some have said 'let us drown them in the sea'.
"Imagine if that was said to the Prophet Muhammad's family," the Kota Raja MP told the Dewan Rakyat today while debating the King's address.
"Let us not forget history. Don't forget that Islam was upheld by refugees, especially the Prophet Muhammad," he added.
Mohamad, better known as Mat Sabu, said that refugees should not all be painted with the same negative brush, and the different types of refugees and asylum seekers need to be differentiated.
For example, he said Rohingya who fled to save their lives, should at the very least be given temporary shelter.
Mohamad (above) said news that a group of Rohingya asylum seekers drowning off the coast of Langkawi would be an embarrassment to Malaysia if it is true.
Twenty-six Rohingya refugees were feared to have drowned while swimming to shore in Langkawi.
However, today it was discovered that they had survived after making it to a nearby islet.
Mohamad said, instead of targeting refugees, the government should go after syndicates and business people who profit from trafficking migrants and refugees.
Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin had said that Malaysia is unable to take in more refugees as the country struggles with the Covid-19 pandemic.
The pandemic had sparked a wave of anti-migrant sentiments, including against refugees due to fears about the virus spreading among them to Malaysians.
The Malaysian Insight reported that at least 700 Rohingya refugees have lost their dwelling places in Kuala Lumpur since early this month.
Kuala Lumpur City Hall had ordered landlords not to rent out to undocumented migrants from late May, according to FMT.
Malaysia is not a signatory to the UN refugee convention, leaving refugees in a legal grey area in the country.
Later in the day, Ahmad Fadhli Shaari (PAS-Pasir Mas) raised a point of order, saying that Mohamad's remarks about Prophet Muhammad were misleading the Dewan Rakyat.
"The Prophet Muhammad was not a refugee," he said.
He said this is because the Hijrah event where the Prophet left Mecca for Madinah, was on the invitation from the latter.
He added that God had also commanded Prophet Muhammad to leave Mecca.
He then called for a ruling demanding the Amanah president retract his statement referring to Prophet Muhammad as a refugee.
Mohamad was not in the House at the time.
Shahidan Kassim (above) (BN-Arau) later said that Mohamad's remarks were seditious and that no negative terms such as refugee should be ascribed to the Prophet.
He said that if the Kota Raja MP did not retract his remarks, he will submit a motion to refer the former to the rights and privileges committee.
According to Muslim tradition, Prophet Muhammad who had been facing persecution in Mecca, had been instructed by God to leave for Medina, whose people had vowed to give him protection if he were to stay with them.
On the night of his departure, a siege was laid on his house by the Quraysh people who had planned to kill him.
Prophet Muhammad, however, managed to escape and hid in a cave for several days to evade his would-be assassins, before finally making the journey to Medina.
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