Dr M: PAS implementing un-Islamic hudud for political gain
(The Star) – PAS wants to implement hudud laws solely for political gain, making it un-Islamic, claims Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (pic).
The former prime minister of 22 years also said that he was surprised Kelantan Umno supported it and hoped they understood its implications.
“PAS’ hudud is unIslamic because the Quran demands equality.
“Severing of hands, stoning to death and decapitation for Muslims, but lighter punishments for non-Muslims from the same society is unfair. Therefore PAS’ version of hudud is not Islamic hudud,” he said in a posting on his blog chedet.cc on Wednesday.
Dr Mahathir said that PAS’ political intentions were clear when its president Datuk Seri Hadi Awang said in 2003 that the party would work with DAP to bring down Barisan Nasional even if it meant sacrificing their hudud agenda at the Federal level.
Dr Mahathir said that there would also be strong objections if PAS’ hudud were applied to non-Muslims.
He said the Islamic laws currently in the country were only applicable to Muslims in family matters.
“For other crimes, our laws do not differentiate between religions, in order to give justice to all,” said.
He also hit out at Hadi for saying that he was not qualified to talk about hudud as he did not understand Islamic laws.
“I can also say that he doesn’t know anything about administration and is not qualified to govern a state,” said Dr Mahathir.
“As someone trained in the field of medicine, I can identify diseases, including diseases in the administration and heal it. I am not that ignorant in religious matters. This can be seen from the results during my administration,” he said.
He added that many of those who were at war and killed others of the same religion were fluent in Arabic and led by religious scholars.
“Don’t they know that killing is not allowed in Islam? They create their own crimes and mete out punishments that go against social justice as demanded by Islam, ” he said.
He pointed out there were those killed because they did not keep beards, watched sports or did not wear the hijab.
He also recalled a case where a woman was shot dead for adultery.
“The proceedings and the man were not shown. Only the lady was shot. Is this Islamic? Is this fair? ” he said, adding that Islam spread widely before because of its good image.
Dr Mahathir said that doing something that would lower the image of Islam among non-Muslims was against the religion.
