Kuala Lumpur: A decision of Malaysia's highest religious body barring Muslims from practicing Yoga can be implemented only after the consent of the religious leaders of the respective states in the country, a top official of an Islamic organisation said today.

It is the prerogative of the state religious authorities and their rulers to accept or reject National Fatwa Council's decision to bar Muslims from practising yoga, the official said after a meeting with the country's state religious council heads here.

Department of Islamic Development Malaysia director-general Wan Mohamad Sheikh Abd Aziz said the council's Fatwa (edict) would be discussed in the state fatwa committees, whose members were appointed by their respective rulers.

Malaysia has 13 states and each state has its Sultan.

"After it is agreed upon by the committees, the matter will then be presented to the various state religious councils before it is brought for the Sultan's consent. This is the process of how a fatwa is implemented in the state," he was quoted as saying by local media reports.

Rejecting to implement the council's Fatwa issued on Saturday, the Sultan of Selangor has said that the state Fatwa Committee had yet to deliberate on the matter.

Another state, Perak's Religious Department director Datuk Jamry Sury, who had earlier been quoted as saying that the state would abide by the fatwa, retracted his statement a day later.

Source : PTI