Referring to a Salafi belief that a ruler should be obeyed as long as he observes his canonical prayers, Farouk speculated that this was the reason for the lack of anti-Salafi rhetoric from Umno.

He said Prime Minister Najib Razak must have thought it was a good idea to allow Salafism to spread when he realised that the Riyadh regime’s longevity was due to the popularity of Salafi thought in Saudi Arabia.

Farouk made his remarks at the recent launching of political activist Zaid Ibrahim’s book, Zeidgeist: Building Bridges for a Greater Malaysia.

Referring to passage in the book about the “foolishness of Muslim leaders” in Malaysia, he said religious leaders started becoming foolish with the birth of Ulama Muda Umno about 17 years ago.

“Islamic agencies used to be dominated by traditionalists,” he said. “But in late 2000, with the formation of the Ulama Muda Umno, there was a paradigm shift and these groups leaned from traditionalism towards Salafism.”-

He alleged that Salafism had resulted in the demonisation of Shia Muslims and liberal Muslims as well as in the teaching that it was against Islam to give honourable recognition of the festivals associated with other religions.

“People like me and Zaid did not grow up with religious leaders telling us this,” he said. “This is suddenly happening because of another doctrine the Salafists hold to: al-wala’ wa al-barra’ (allegiance and disavowal), which simply means that no sort of collaboration with infidels is allowed.”

Farouk also spoke of the coming general election, saying he opposed the Undi Rosak campaign, which calls on youths to spoil their votes.

He warned that the success of the campaign would mean Barisan Nasional’s continued hold on power.

“If we do not vote and the current government continues to be in power, it will continue to feel that it is invincible,” he said. “We must remove that invincibility.

“If Pakatan Harapan does not perform, after five years we’ll have the chance to change the government again.”