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The man at the centre of Malaysia’s most-discussed religious controversy this week is 21-year-old Aliff Daniel Adli, arrested on Tuesday (13 Oct) alongside his 51-year-old mother by the Federal Territories Islamic Religious Department (JAWI) following warrants issued by the Shah Alam Syariah Lower Court.

Both are being investigated under Sections 4 and 10 of the Syariah Criminal Offences (Selangor) Enactment 1995 — acts of worship contrary to Islamic law, and insulting Islam.

Hadie, who agreed to speak through a mutual acquaintance, described a household that fractured slowly, over years, along a single fault line: his son’s deepening involvement in practices he believed crossed into syirik — the Islamic prohibition against putting anyone or anything else on the same level as God.