Govt to review need to have law to curb abuse of 'shariah-compliant' term

The government will review the need to establish a comprehensive act to curb the abuse of the term 'shariah-compliant' that can clearly mislead the public, Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Dr Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki said Thursday.

He said, at present, the term had been widely used by the players in foreign exchange and gold trading industry, as well as by loan sharks, because there was no specific law to curb it.

"This is among the constraints that we faced...right now, we only have the Islamic Financial Services Act 2013 and the Securities Commission of Malaysia Act 1993 for shariah issues relating to banking and capital markets.

"We still don't have a comprehensive act which regulates the use of the term 'shariah-compliant'...and which will enable use to rush, raid and take legal action against anyone found to have abused the term for their own benefit."

He said this to reporters after opening the 11th Conference of Syariah Advisory Council for Financial Institutions here.

Apart from that, Asyraf also said the government would also review the need to take action against 'fake mufti', or those issue fake edict (fatwa) to 'legalise' the use of the term 'shariah-compliant' to achieve their agenda.