The consultative council said it had agreed to endorse the statement at its exco meeting yesterday.
“We agree with the concerns expressed by the group,” it said in a statement today, also noting the support of various groups, including the ‘I am #26' online petition in support of the group.
The group of former top civil servants, judges, ambassadors and scholars, had deplored, among others, how the current situation shows religious bodies asserting authority beyond their jurisdiction and the issuance of various fatwa violating the federal constitution.
MCCBCHST however pointed out that the opposing group of senior Islamic officials appeared to want to debate outside the framework of the federal constitution.
“The point made by the ‘25 Eminent Malays’ and other support groups is that some of the religious bodies appear to be asserting authority beyond the constitution.
“However, the group of ‘senior Islamic officials’ seems to be advocating amendments to the constitution to accommodate Islamic and Shariah law,” it said.
Thirty-three Muslim scholars, consisting mostly of professors in various disciplines, had urged the government to set up a “high-powered committee” to review the federal constitution for amendments to incorporate the needs of Muslims and entrench the rights of minorities.
MCCBCHST, meanwhile, said debates should be within the framework of the constitution, or otherwise, “we will be running in the wilderness”.
On the Islamic scholars’ claim that most Muslims want Shariah law, MCCBCHST said that offences such as rape, robbery and sodomy were already offences under the Penal Code and thus out of the bounds of Islamic law.
“What cannot be disputed is that most Islamic countries in the world do not want hudud law, including the most populous country, Indonesia.”
Expressing hope that everyone would abide by the constitution, it said that any attempts to rewrite the constitution would be unconstitutional and would not be accepted by Malaysians.
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