The right-wing group said Marina was jahil (ignorant) of Islamic teachings when the social activist and daughter of former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said implementing the Islamic penal code in Kelantan would end up splitting Malaysia’s multi-racial and multi-religious society.
“The obligation to implement it is not just because it is God’s instruction, but more importantly, it is for the benefit of society,” said Isma’s ulama council official Ustaz Muhammad Firdaus Zalani in a statement.
“It is impossible for God who created humans and the entire world to order something that will bring detriment to humans,” he added.
Last Friday, Marina was reported criticising the PAS-led Kelantan government’s plan to enforce hudud, saying that it was against the Federal Constitution and would inevitably affect non-Muslims although the strict Islamic criminal law was only meant for Muslims.
Opponents of hudud have said a Islamic criminal justice system cannot be implemented in Malaysia as the country is secular.
PAS’ renewed push for hudud law in Kelantan has once again put the Islamist party at loggerheads with its allies PKR and particularly, the DAP, in the federal opposition pact Pakatan Rakyat (PR).
Firdaus said today that bad things will happen only if people ignore God’s teachings.
“Saying that God’s teachings will bring harm to us all is as if we’re saying that God has failed and cannot understand the things that will bring us good,” he said.
He stressed that Muslims need to understand that God will not obligate believers to do something unless it benefits the world or brings them good in the afterlife.
“For me, there’s no problem discussing the technical parts of hudud so as to insert it in the country’s legal system, whether it’s about the current obstacles or how to make it appropriate based on current technological developments,” he said.
Kelantan Mentri Besar Datuk Ahmad Yakob announced recently that the state legislative assembly will hold a special sitting on December 29 to table and pass amendments to the Kelantan Shariah Criminal Code Enactment II.
The move is in preparation for PAS’s plan to table in Parliament a private member’s Bill to amend the Federal Constitution and to allow Kelantan to implement the Shariah Criminal Code Enactment II passed by the state assembly in 1993.
In Islamic jurisprudence, hudud covers crimes such as theft, robbery, adultery, rape and sodomy. Punishments for the crimes are severe, including amputation, flogging and death by stoning.
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