PETALING JAYA: PAS has denied a statement allegedly issued by the Saudi Arabian government imposing an entry ban on its party president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang.
The statement, which was circulated online on Monday (July 31), stated that Abdul Hadi was banned from entering the kingdom due to his involvement with the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS).
In its Facebook post on Tuesday (Aug 1), PAS said official statements issued by Saudi Arabia will use the Hijri calendar instead of Gregorian.
“The PAS president is no longer the vice president of IUMS.
“This is proof that their side has run out of ideas to contest democratically, maturely and with dignity during the six state elections,” it said.
The statement which was dated July 31, listed reasons for the ban against Abdul Hadi such as, allegedly possessing “extreme ideology” that could threaten the security and interest of the kingdom, encouraged Muslims to overthrow the government in the name of jihad (struggle) and for supporting the Shia group.
In 2017, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain included IUMS in their list of organisations and individuals they accused of supporting terrorism.
The Qatar-based IUMS was formed in 2004 by Egyptian Muslim scholar Yusuf al-Qardawi, who was also named by the Saudis for links to terrorism.
IUMS is known for its effort to work on the reconciliation between Shia and Sunni Muslims.
Abdul Hadi was elected as one of IUMS vice-presidents in 2014. His tenure ended in 2018 after being condemned by the group in 2016 for attending a conference in Iran, the country that supported Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
IUMS said it was insensitive of Abdul Hadi to attend the conference when the Muslims globally were against Assad’s regime.
