PAS concedes support risk over hudud
By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal, The Malaysian Insider
PAS yesterday explained it was biding its time over the implementation of hudud laws in Kelantan, saying that a gradual roll-out would avoid startling non-Muslims in the state.
Spiritual advisor Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat was addressing bloggers who had demanded that the state government explain why it was “no longer” insistent with pushing for hudud laws in the state.
Nik Aziz, also the Kelantan mentri besar, said that while the issue of implementation was important, allowing non-Muslims to understand Islamic laws was also as important.
“We do not enforce hudud laws but we are united as Malays, Chinese and Indians in Kelantan.
“There is no difference between us, we have made mosques that look like temples in Rantau Panjang… This is because we do not want to differentiate Malays from Chinese,” said Nik Aziz.
The veteran politician added that PAS’s approach in Kelantan minus hudud laws had made non-Muslims less “threatened” by the party as well as Islamic policies.
He also said that that the danger of opening Kelantan to legal reprisals was why the Islamist party has yet to enforce hudud in laws in the state it has ruled for over two decades.
Nik Aziz said that if PAS had pushed for the implementation of hudud laws in Kelantan in 1990, the Islamist party’s control over the state could have been jeopardised.
Nik Aziz blamed former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed for setback to hudud law implementation, saying that the federal government then had “threatened” that it would take legal action against the state if hudud laws were passed.
