He claimed that remarks made by one Nawawi Abdul Razak in a Facebook post on Sept 20 were false and done in bad faith to deliberately link him to GISBH.

“The defendant’s (Nawawi) statements gave an impression that the plaintiff (Asri) used to be close to GISBH but later abused his position to issue a fatwa (against GISBH).

“Direct reference was made towards the plaintiff where the defendant referred to him by the initials ‘Maza’ in the posts,” Asri said in his statement of claim filed last month.

On Sept 20, the Perlis mufti declared that GISBH promotes deviant beliefs and operates businesses in an unIslamic manner. This followed a review by the state fatwa committee.

Asri, through his lawyers, had issued a letter of demand to Nawawi in September, asking him to remove the impugned remarks.

The mufti said Nawawi had acknowledged receipt of the letter but chose to ignore it.

Asri is seeking RM10 million in damages as well as a public apology – published in local newspapers – from Nawawi.

The court has fixed Nov 11 for case management.