PAS’s hudud is political, not religious, says DAP after Mideast visit
(The Malaysian Insider) – As PAS rallies Muslim MPs to support a private member’s bill in Parliament to allow Islamic capital punishments, or hudud, to be imposed in Kelantan, DAP says the plan is political and not religious, and a tool to divide the opposition.
This was among conclusions reached by a DAP delegation to Egypt and Jordan last month to learn about political Islam and how religious laws were applied in other Muslim nations.
“In Malaysia, the hudud discourse is narrow and used as a political issue to divide the opposition. DAP is not against hudud as an Islamic code of laws,” said Bukit Bendera MP Zairil Khir Johari, a member of the delegation.
“But we question its implementation in Kelantan, specifically its timing. Why are they doing it now given that there are so many other basic things that should be prioritised?”
The PAS-led Kelantan government was severely criticised after it tabled amendments to the state’s Shariah Criminal Code (II) Enactment 1993, which were unanimously passed by the state assembly last March.
Besides questioning several aspects of the amendments, critics such as the DAP argued that priority should have been given to rebuilding parts of Kelantan that were devastated by floods last December.
Thousands of Kelantanese who lost their homes in last December’s floods still live in tents, even as the state government attempts to push through amendments during the current sitting of the Dewan Rakyat to empower it to enforce hudud in the state.
Kelantan PAS’s plan has also driven a wedge between its partners in Pakatan Rakyat, the PKR and DAP, and the coalition is on the verge of disintegrating because of it.
DAP’s delegation to Middle East also took another lesson: that different countries have their own Shariah laws which are open to interpretation and adaptation to local circumstances.
“In both countries, they have their own version of Shariah law. Even hudud, there is difference from the hudud that PAS intends to introduce in Kelantan.
