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KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will send a signal to the world that it has abandoned moderation should the PAS-led Kelantan government be allowed to enforce hudud in the state, said the G25, a group of retired high-ranking Malay civil servants who want a rational discourse on Islam.

The group said Malaysia would be seen as a country governed by religious laws that were subjected to the interpretation of clerics, and urged Putrajaya to protect the federal constitution as the country’s supreme law.

“Since independence, this country has chosen the path of moderation. The prime minister has continued to steer the government along this path and has launched the Global Movement of Moderates to show to the world that the country is committed to the principle of moderation.

“The imposition of PAS’ hudud laws will signify to the world that Malaysia has abandoned the moderate path. We will be seen as a country governed by religious laws which are subjected to the vagaries of interpretation of the ulama who are also fallible human beings,” the G25 said in a statement.

The group said a multiracial country with an open economy like Malaysia could not afford to alter the secular character of its constitution to allow for the implementation of PAS’ hudud enactment.

The G25 added that it supported Dr Chandra Muzaffar’s view that the federal constitution was not un-Islamic, and said any attempt to amend the constitution to allow the implementation of hudud would violate the Malaysia Agreement.

It also raised doubts as to whether Kelantan’s hudud law, as detailed in the Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code (11) Enactment, 1993 (Amendment 2015), would succeed in upholding justice, given the diversity of juristic interpretations of the law.

The group added that the Kelantan government was pushing for hudud without even having met the conditions required for its implementation, as outlined by Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the chairman of the World Union of Muslim Scholars.

Accordingly to the G25, Yusuf said a society must ensure the economic needs of the people are met, employment opportunities are provided for all, and poverty is eradicated before hudud can be enforced.

“In light of the above elucidation by Sheikh Qaradawi, can any state in Malaysia claim to have satisfied the pre-conditions in order to allow for the implementation of hudud?” said the G25.

The group also cited Islamic scholar Professor Hashim Kamali, who analysed PAS’ original 1993 enactment and found that it “failed to be reflective either of a balanced outlook of the Quran or of the social conditions and realities of a contemporary Malaysian society”.

Hashim, who heads the Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies, said, “the hudud bill exhibited no attempt to exercise ijtihad (creative thought) over new issues such that it would fulfil the ideals of justice and encourage the development of a judicious social policy.”

The G25 said a perusal of the 2015 hudud enactment had revealed it continued to emphasise punishment rather than repentance and rehabilitation as espoused in the Quran.

“Many other prominent Muslim scholars such as SAA Maududi, Salim el-Awa, Muhamad al-Ghazali, Mustafa al-Zarqa and Cherif Bassiouni have opined that the application of hudud as an isolated case without providing the necessary context and environment is not only unrealistic, but is more likely to induce the opposite result and frustrate, rather than satisfy, the Islamic vision of justice and fair play.

“In addition, they emphasise that the hadith, as recorded in Sahih Al-Bukhari, and which is also a legal maxim, provides that hudud must be suspended in doubtful situations,” said the G25. — The Malaysian Insider

 

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on March 26, 2015.

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