Party ulama chief: Changes to Marriage Act against Islam

ALOR SETAR: PAS is adamant that the proposed amendments to the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act, which prevents unilateral conversion, is against Islam.

Party ulama chief Datuk Dr Mahfodz Mohamed said the rise of “liberal Islam” among Muslims and some leaders had led to such proposals being made.

“The proposed amendments are against Islam and Article 12(4) of the Federal Constitution, which allows a parent to convert a child below 18 to Islam,” he said at the Dewan Ulama assembly yesterday.

There was a fatwa (edict) and Federal Court decision, which allowed a Muslim parent to convert his child, he added.

The proposed amendments, which were tabled in November last year, were aimed at resolving inter-faith child custody battles between Muslim and non-Muslim parents.

However, its second reading, which was slated earlier this month, was postponed.

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi explained that the Attorney-General had been told to study the feedback and to re-examine the matter with religious and legal experts.

In his speech yesterday, Dr Mahfodz also said the ulamas would continue to push for party president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang’s Private Member’s Bill to empower syariah courts under the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act.

On the Goods and Services Tax (GST), Dr Mahfodz said the tax should be abolished as it was haram (forbidden in Islam).

“It is not right for the Government to collect the tax from low-income earners when there are leakages in Government expenditure,” he claimed.

The GST, he said, only burdened the public. PAS deputy spiritual leader Datuk Ahmad Yakob said that liberal Muslim groups were a threat to Islam and should be wiped out or banned.

Otherwise, this would lead to the formation of groups among Muslims that would end up fighting one another, he said at the opening of the Dewan Ulama assembly.

He said “liberal Islam” was a Western agenda promoted as an alternative to “extreme Islam” portrayed by the media.

Such groups, he said, even influenced some leaders, leading to Muslims not daring to utter terms such as hudud or “Islamic nation”.

Without naming anyone, Ahmad also said that it would be pointless if the Opposition wrested Putrajaya from the Government only to replace it with a secular socialist goverment.