It’s not even Islamic hudud, it’s PAS hudud, says Dr M
(The Malaysian Insider) – The hudud that is proposed by PAS is not Islamic, and the Kelantan Umno assemblymen who had voted for it were not even aware of what they were supporting, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today.
The former prime minister said PAS’s hudud law was unjust because it created two sets of laws, one for Muslims and another for non-Muslims, and included the punishment of stoning to death, which was not even included in the Quran.
He added that PAS’s intention to implement hudud was not to uphold Islam, but for politics and to win elections.
“The hudud that is proposed by PAS is not Islamic hudud. It is PAS hudud.
“If you are not just, you are not Islamic. If you have political intentions, it’s not Islamic. So the people in Kelantan Umno who supported this don’t even know what they’re supporting,” said Dr Mahathir at a forum in Cyberjaya today.
He said both Umno and PAS were thinking along the lines of politics in the issue of hudud, adding that the two parties were concerned they would lose Muslim votes if they did not back the criminal law.
“These people, Umno also, are thinking about politics. (They think), ‘If I don’t support (hudud), who will get support from the Muslims?’ It’s wrong.
“The proposed hudud is wrong and it cannot be applied in Malaysia because we have a multi religious population.”
Elaborating further, Dr Mahathir said that it was unfair if a Muslim’s hand was chopped off while a non-Muslim would only be jailed two months for stealing.
He added that only the hadith mentioned cases of people being stoned to death, and said the two incidents were unique rather than the norm.
“When you start anything, as a Muslim you say, ‘bismillahirrahmanirrahim’ which means ‘in the name of the God, the most merciful and compassionate’. You think it’s merciful and compassionate to stone people to death?
“It is an unjust law. What they are introducing, because they are confining to Muslims and not to Muslims, it is unjust. If it is unjust, it is not Islamic.”