‘Haram’ to stay with DAP, Muslim group tells PAS

(Malay Mail Online) – It is “haram”, or religiously forbidden, for Islamist party PAS to stay in a pact with DAP in Pakatan Rakyat (PR), as the secular party opposes Islamic laws, according to Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma).

According to the Islamist group, the “tahaluf siyasi” — an Arabic term roughly meaning “political consensus” — between the two parties has automatically been rendered invalid as DAP harms the struggle to uphold Islam in the country.

“It is ‘haram’ if PAS stays with DAP, especially when DAP has clearly rejected the implementation of Islamic laws,” Isma president Abdullah Zaik Abd Rahman said.

“The requirement for the consensus in Islamic code means that non-Muslims must accept the Islamic agenda.”

Abdullah said that the position of Islam must not be challenged by anybody.

His comment comes after DAP national organising secretary Anthony Loke Siew Fook said yesterday that PAS should consider leaving the PR coalition if it refuses to let up on its renewed push to implement hudud law in Kelantan.

Loke pointed out that the three partners in PR — which also includes PKR — had previously agreed to a set of common objectives which take primacy over the individual agendas of each party.

Hudud, he said, goes against the opposition pact’s principle of consensus.

Tensions resurfaced between PAS and DAP in recent weeks after MPs from the Islamist party disclosed their intent to push two private members’ bills in Parliament for the enforcement of the controversial Islamic penal law in Kelantan.

Conceding they were unlikely to receive any support from PR allies, PAS leaders turned to political foe, Umno for support.

The term “tahaluf siyasi” is used  to describe PAS’s working arrangement with its allies in PR, and was coined during its 2012 muktamar, or annual conference.