Some of Libya's more moderate Islamists privately admit the mufti goes too far but are unwilling to say so in public.
But it confiscated Muslim religious endowments, arguing that they fell under the auspices of the chief mufti based in East Jerusalem, then under Jordan's enemy rule.
As an example, the mufti cited the government's refusal to allow Kelantan, the only state controlled by PAS, to implement the hudud, or Islamic criminal code, which includes amputation for thieves and stoning for adulterers.
For his part, the chief mufti of the kingdom, Sheikh Abdel Aziz al-Sheikh, declared that liberals were as much of a danger as militant religious extremists.
"The great majority of French Muslims are melting successfully into the social mainstream," comments Soheib Bencheikh, the liberal mufti of Marseilles.
"Politicians and the mass media are equating us, the Muslim faithful, with armed groups," complains Ravil Gainutdin, Russia's senior mufti.
The scholar is Ali Gomaa (pictured), a former grand mufti of Egypt who has been sharply critical of the Brotherhood and correspondingly supportive of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
Mr Kadyrov was more credible than average: his background as mufti, his time with the rebels and his experience as administrator gave him a unique mixture of levers of influence.The biggest such lever was the kadyrovtsy.
Some Muslim communities have disowned him, and he faces being stripped of his title as mufti of Australia.Some people still associate Lakemba with ugly racial clashes in December 2005 between gangs of mainly Lebanese youths, and whites from Cronulla, an insular Anglo beach suburb further south on the railway line.
A number of leading Islamic figures, such as Egypt's grand mufti and Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a Qatar-based preacher, say that the death penalty is deserved if the apostate "subverts society" or "damages Islam".
The grand mufti of Syria has issued grave warnings of war and bloodshed.
