Anas: Is proposed amendments a priority?
PETALING JAYA: Lawmakers must assess if hudud is the most important priority to look into for the country, said moderation advocate Anas Zubedy.
Anas said Malaysia was a democracy and it had the freedom to bring the Islamic law into being as long as due process was followed.
However, time should be taken to study it further and priority should be given to the most immediate concerns among today’s Muslims.
“As far as processes are concerned, we are a democracy. If they follow the processes, then so be it. The constitution is not carved in stone.
“But looking at some other countries, are they doing better with hudud?
“In Kelantan for instance, will it be able to develop further with hudud’s law implementation?
“These are things our Muslim leaders have to decide,” he said when contacted yesterday.
He was asked to comment on PAS’ Private Member’s Bill, seeking to amend the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act.
Anas also reminded Malaysians against turning the controversy into a fight between Muslims and non-Muslims.
“In Malaysia, we cannot do something that is only for the Muslims or only for the non-Muslims.
“Everything we do we have to think about the country as a whole,” he added.
Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (Abim) president Mohamad Raimi Ab Rahim said the Private Member’s Bill should be debated and discuss in detail, especially with the non-Muslims
He said there was a need for a genuine discussion of the issue with various stakeholders such as political parties and civil society, including those who are non-Muslims.
“We call for this motion to be discussed and debated in a thorough and open manner during the next Parliament proceedings,” he said.
He said Islam belongs to all Muslims and not exclusively to certain parties with their own political agenda that changes seasonally.
“This issue will have a great effect in Malaysia, across all religions and races as the legal processes and technical details are still kept under wraps and have not been explained properly.
“Abim stresses that the wish to implement this Islamic law has to be in line with the principle of maqasid al-syariah (objectives of the syariah) by making sure it achieves what it was truly meant for, which is to ensure justice for the people,” he said.
He urged all parties not to politicise the issue and to debate it maturely, as it would be easy for people to react negatively and to have a bad impression of Islam in general.