Hudud: Soi Lek attacking Islam again to score points against DAP
Wong Choon Mei, Malaysia Chronicle
Muslim leaders condemned MCA president Chua Soi Lek for badmouthing hudud and stomping on Islam when he suggested that the Chinese community reject DAP because it could later U-turn on its secular stance and support PAS in allowing the Muslim law to be implemented.
“Why does Chua Soi Lek want to talk about hudud when he hasn’t taken the trouble to understand what it is about? Don’t politicize hudud because it is part of Islamic law. You don’t have to agree or to accept but don’t turn it into something evil just to scare the Chinese voters away from DAP,” PAS vice president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man told Malaysia Chronicle.
| Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man |
“That is very bad. It is a form of racism and escapism. Are MCA and Chua so desperate to hide their own troubles that they have to start attacking religion? It is also a shame for Umno to stand by and let them make hudud a bogeyman to the non-Muslims. Where is their love for Islam?”
Political points
On Thursday, Chua accused DAP – which is MCA’s main rival for the Chinese vote – of being willing to sacrifice the community for the sake of power by agreeing with PAS to implement hudud.
But in his haste to score political points, Chua denigrated Islam by suggesting that hudud was something that Chinese should reject at all costs.
“It is an eye opener to all citizens in this country that PAS would never never give up on its Islamic agenda. So it is wrong to say why not we try to vote for them. It is wrong because it concerns the welfare of the rakyat,” Chua was quoted as saying.
| Nizar Jamaluddin |
Unsurprisingly, Chua’s comments drew sharp rebuke from Islamic leaders, angered by the perceived facetiousness in his remarks and for condemning a branch of their religious law that has been in practice for centuries in many Muslim nations.
Hudud is of three branches of Islamic or Syariah law – of which tazir and qisas are the other two. Hudud specifically state the limits ordained by Allah and refer only to 6 crimes namely theft, highway robbery, illegal sexual intercourse or zina, false accusations of zina, drinking alcohol and apostasy, which includes blasphemy.
