Non-Muslims should ask right questions about hudud first, says academic

By admin-s On Jun 9, 2014

(TMI) – “We don’t have to ask whose law is hudud but to merely ask whether it is effective. People don’t care whether a cat is black or white, as long as it can catch the mice.”

Instead of hitting out at proposals to implement hudud and demanding that their rights be preserved, non-Muslims should start asking proponents of the Islamic law the right questions.

Penang Institute political scientist Dr Wong Chin Huat said non-Muslims should ask if Muslims were willing to amend Article 182 of the Federal Constitution, which states that the Special Court has exclusive jurisdiction to try all offences committed by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong or a state ruler.

“If hudud is to be implemented and all Muslims are to be subjected to it, then will the government amend Article 182 to allow the king and the rulers to also be subjected to hudud?” he asked at Wisma Than Hsiang in Penang last night at the “Contemporary Buddhist forum: the impact of Islamisation on democratic society and non-Islamic religions”.

Wong said non-Muslims should also ask how much was a quarter of a dinar worth today to punish a criminal for theft.

Under hudud, a person who steals something worth a quarter of a dinar or more shall have his or her hand cut off.

“In the 1993 Kelantan hudud enactment, the monetary threshold was RM2,000. If a quarter of a dinar was RM2,000 then according to God’s will, how much is it today in 2014, counting in factors like the exchange and inflation rates and the distribution of wealth?

“Does the enactment provide a revision mechanism to address the inflation rate, at least?”

Wong said another question was whether they were willing to redraft the Federal Constitution to enable the implementation of hudud in Kelantan because the Islamic law has never been part of the deal when Sabah and Sarawak merged with Malaya in 1963 to form Malaysia.

“Everyone has a say but he may not need to state his moral position. He just had to ask the important technical questions and open the issue to debate,” he said, adding that by merely objecting, hudud proponents can simply accuse non-Muslim of making noise because they lack understanding.

He said hudud could not be imposed simply because its proponents call it their religious rights, because even non-Muslims have equal rights in decision-making on the matter.