In Raya sermon, Jais gives thanks for PAS Shariah Bill

(MMO) – Selangor religious authorities today urged Muslims celebrating Hari Raya to express gratitude over the tabling of PAS’s private member’s Bill to enhance the powers of the Shariah courts.

In the second of two sermons prepared by the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais), it also took a swipe at Sisters in Islam, thanking the civil courts for not accepting the Muslim group’s bid to challenge a fatwa declaring it deviant.

“We are truly grateful in our victory in tabling the motion for the Enactment of the Bill of Shariah Court (Criminal Jurisdiction) (Amendment) 2016 in the Parliament, solely to uplift the prestige of the Shariah courts in this country.

“We are also grateful with the decision reached by the High Court’s Appellate and Special Powers Division is rejecting the request by Sisters in Islam in challenging the consensus reached by the Selangor Fatwa Committee regarding liberalism in the state of Selangor…” said the sermon read out in state mosques on the first day of Hari Raya.

It then urged Muslims to set aside their differences and unite to uphold the faith and Shariah, or the Islamic “path”.

In May, PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang (pic) tabled his Bill to amend the Syariah Court (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 and allow Islamic courts to impose any penalty save for the death sentence, following the intervention of an Umno minister.

The Bill has occasionally been labelled the “hudud Bill”, based on the fact that PAS initially pushed it to allow the party to enforce Islamic penal laws previously passed in Kelantan, although the party and Umno deny that it is specifically to allow for hudud to be implemented.

The sermon comes amid continued controversy over Pahang Mufti Datuk Seri Dr Abdul Rahman Osman’s labelling of DAP as “kafir harbi” over its opposition to hudud laws.

Abdul Rahman later expanded the term, which means infidels who are allowed to be slain, to encompass anyone who opposes Islam. He is under a sedition investigation for the remark.

The High Court in Kuala Lumpur last month dismissed a judicial review sought by SIS against a 2014 Selangor fatwa branding it as deviant, ruling that only the Shariah courts have the powers to deal with the religious edict.

Muslims across the country and other parts of the world celebrate the first day of Aidilfitri today, following the end of the Ramadan fasting month.