PAS and the recruiting of God
Zurairi AR, The Malay Mail
There was a particularly awkward moment during the PAS annual congress, or muktamar, on Friday when a delegate chose to use his debate time slot to instead lead a prayer which started off fine but became increasingly incendiary.
In hindsight, it was a wickedly smart move to circumvent the 12-minute time limit allocated to each delegate, as not even the permanent chairman had the guts to stop the prayer session, until it lasted close to half an hour, more than double the usual time.
However, it was a wonder what the delegates felt during the recital, when the prayer invoked the name of God in the same breath as harsh attacks against those in the party who openly defied its president and the influential clergy class.
A delegate however finally had enough of it, and quickly grabbed the mic after the prayer was finished, demanding that the permanent chairman discipline the prayer reciter for allegedly manipulating religion for politicking.
PAS president Datuk Seri Hadi Awang (third from left) at the recently-concluded PAS 60th Muktamar in Batu Pahat, Johore. – Picture by Yusof Mat Isa
I felt a sense of irony when the irate delegate pointed that out. Perhaps he has forgotten how PAS is an Islamist party that uses politics as a tool for Islam, as masterfully as they use Islam as a tool of politics?
During the launch of the muktamar itself, the party’s spiritual leader Nik Abd Aziz Nik Mat addressed the delegates through a recorded video, applauding them for the simple act of congregating, which he said was part of an Islamic act of faith.
Another example was during the muktamar of its Ulama wing, where the calls of “hypocrites” were thrown around carelessly against party members who defied the leadership and openly expressed dissent.
When one delegate pointed out that labelling fellow members as such is too easy a way to condemn somebody’s morals, the wing’s information chief Khairuddin Aman Razali defended the condemners, saying labelling was actually a “sunnah.”
Sunnah can be interpreted as the collected sayings, and in this context habits of the Prophet, which bestow an adherent with religious rewards when followed and practised by them.
Khairuddin also pointed out that even the Quran starts its first chapter by labelling humans into different categories, therefore labelling others — and by extension, condemning others with foul names — is part and parcel of the Islamic way.
In short, PAS has a way of convincing its members that they were being good Muslims simply by being in the party and carrying out party work.
It is all too common for PAS rallies, usually reserved for small ones in exclusively Malay areas, to declare those who support PAS as better Muslims than those who support arch rivals Umno.
President Abdul Hadi Awang had during a rally in 1981 been quoted as saying that PAS’ struggle is a jihad — a holy struggle, and those who died in its struggle, would be awarded martyrdom in the afterlife. These quotes have since been printed and distributed among the public and dubbed “Hadi’s Mandate.”
