He said this was a sign of religious intolerance baring its teeth.
Ramasamy said Perlis mufti Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin, who was admired for his stand on Islamic matters, had surprisingly chosen to downgrade and humiliate Hinduism today.
“I am sorry to say that the mufti has overreacted to comments about Naik from Hindu groups in the country,” he said in reference to India-based Muslim preacher Dr Zakir Naik.
“In doing so, the mufti has descended to the lowest depths of ignorance and shown a despicable form of racism and religious intolerance.
“Despite Muslims being in the majority in the country, why this siege mentality by this mufti, who is purportedly a religious scholar?”
Ramasamy was referring to a caustic poem Asri posted on Facebook today, on people who “idolised cows”.
In his poem, Asri defended an unnamed preacher who he described as being forced to be handed over to an “evil government”.
While Asri did not mention names, he has in the past criticised Hindu rights group Hindraf over its opposition to Naik.
Ramasamy said Hindraf only questioned Naik’s attempt at splitting the unity among those of different religions in Malaysia and the government’s “all access pass” given to Naik.
“There is no one incident where Indians or Hindus have ever questioned the role of Islam in the country.
“Now, given this, was it necessary for the mufti to adopt such venomous hatred and contempt towards Hinduism?”
Ramasamy said Asri’s poem only showed his shallow knowledge of Hinduism, based on old-fashioned thinking, which was “very dangerous”.
“I hope he has not learnt Hinduism from the renowned guru Zakir Naik.
“Where did he get the idea that Hindus are cow ‘worshippers’ and that it is a religion that still practises sati that requires women to jump into the funeral pyre of their husbands?
“Why go into the caste system, as though this is the hallmark of Hinduism?”
Ramasamy told Asri to take some steps to find out if Naik was preaching the kind of Islam that promoted universal understanding, peace and love for humanity.
“The only silver lining to this episode is that Muslim scholars in the country would distance themselves from the way the Perlis mufti has sought to understand Hinduism, the oldest and most vibrant religion or way of life for millions of its adherents.”
Perlis mufti slams ‘cow worshippers’ out to get ‘our preacher’