KUALA LUMPUR: Former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said he felt sad that Muslims with low income in this country who require help in order to be able to perform the Haj will no longer be receiving aid from the government.
In saying that, Najib also said that it was wrong for Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to claim that the money from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) used to sponsor thousands of Malaysian Muslim pilgrims to perform the Haj in Mecca was stolen money.
"Tun Mahathir has always claimed 'money stolen from 1MDB'. How is it possible for 1MDB to steal its own money in order to be able to sponsor pilgrims?
"Those who performed the Haj under 1MDB need not worry because the funds used to help them fulfill one of the obligations under the Five Pillars of Islam are from a halal source because I myself will bear the burden of a huge sin if it is not," Najib said in a statement posted on his Facebook page today.
Dr Mahathir recently said that the government will no longer send people for Haj on stolen money, according to a report by Malaysiakini, in what could have been a jibe at 1MDB.
Previously, Dr Mahathir had hit out at 1MDB's programme of sponsoring pilgrims for Haj, claiming that the 'purity' of haj rituals funded by the 1MDB Foundation would be questionable, as the money was stolen by Najib.