What is the ruling on a man leading prayers and delivering sermons when he sometimes curses religion, commits innovations such as praying in graveyards, performing Qunut in Fajr prayer, and repeatedly reciting the Qur’an in houses of mourning, all while adhering to the Maliki school of thought?

Abandoning the following of this Imam is necessitated only if he reviles the religion. If that is proven with certainty, then he is an infidel, and it is not permissible to pray behind him. As for the other matters mentioned, they do not prevent following him, but he should be advised about them with gentleness and kindness, and by reminding him of the evidence and the words of scholars. Matters of ijtihad (independent reasoning) about which scholars differed, such as qunut in Fajr prayer, are not matters for denunciation or declaring someone an innovator.