Zainul Rijal Abu Bakar, the association’s president, called for the setting up of a mediation panel comprising non-lawyers to hold talks with the Shariah Officers Association (PPSM) to resolve the matter.

In a statement, Zainul said the intervention was urgent as there was a risk that the good image of the shariah judiciary could be sullied as various conflicting statements were being issued.

He said one statement from PPSM urged calm and to allow the probe to be conducted, but a subsequent statement called for the judge to be benched while investigations were carried out.

He noted that yet another statement from PPSM said the call for the top judge to “go on a break” was unauthorised and did not reflect the association’s voice as a whole.

“The controversy over the statements has highlighted the division among the top shariah legal practitioners in the country. However, through an amicable dispute resolution, the issue can be resolved,” he said.

Zainul urged shariah officers and lawyers to not issue further media statements so as not to add to an already worsening polemic over the matter.

Police are probing a complaint by a woman who claimed the top shariah judge had sexually harassed her, after she stumbled upon him lying naked on her bed in 2020. The director-general of the shariah judiciary department, Mohd Na’im Mokhtar, subsequently lodged a police report denying the accusation.