Malaysian Fatwa Council to clarify stance over yoga soon

Malaysia Sun (ANI) Thursday 30th October, 2008

George Town (Malaysia), Oct 30 : The National Fatwa Council in Malaysia is expected to make its stance clear about Muslims practicing yoga soon, after a leading Muslim professor at a Malaysian University preached to his community men to shun yoga, saying that its origins could be tracked to Hinduism.

It is learnt that the matter had been discussed at the Council's meeting in Kota Baru recently.

On Tuesday, Professor Zakaria Stapa of the Faculty of Islamic Studies in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, had called on Muslims not to take up yoga and asked those already doing so to stop practising its art of meditation.

He said practising yoga could cause Muslims to deviate from the teachings of Islam.

"I do not understand why Muslims would want to practise yoga for the purpose of finding serenity when Islam, through its teachings, enables its followers to do just that. Muslims should just practise what Islam has taught them," nstonline.com quoted him as saying after giving a lecture "False Islamic Teachings in Malaysia".

The National Fatwa Council will soon announce its stand on Muslims practising yoga, said the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia.