KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, April 15 A group of Islamic clerics upset with an exhibit of supernatural artifacts at a Malaysian museum had it shut down after alleging it violated their faith.
The exhibit at the Kuala Lumpur state museum was geared toward a growing national fascination with the supernatural, The (London) Independent on Sunday said.
With items such as alleged phoenix and vampire carcasses, "Mysteries, Genies, Ghosts and Coffins" had already drawn tens of thousands of visitors to the museum. The chairman of the fatwa council that advises the government on Islamic relations said the exhibit challenged traditional Muslim beliefs in an unacceptable way.
"We don't want to promote a belief in tahyul (supernatural) and khurafat (superstition) which we do not know about," Abdul Shukor Husin told the newspaper. "We do not need to focus on such things or play them up by having such exhibitions."
Copyright 2007 by UPI
