 According to government figures there are about 40,000 Shiites living in Malaysia, however the unofficial figures put the numbers at more than 300,000.Shiites are subjected to persecutions and raids by various state religious authorities in Malaysia.This discrimination received religious legitimacy in 1996 when the Fatwa Committee for Religious Affairs issued a religious opinion (fatwa) that upheld the “orthodoxy” of Sunni Islam and branded Shi‘a Islam as “deviant.” In doing so, it prohibited Shi‘a from spreading their beliefs and distributing any electronic or print resources that espoused Shi‘i principles.