Asia

Forget democracy and put Malaysia under Shariah rule, Putrajaya told

Malay Online

KUALA LUMPUR, March 25 — Using democratic means to introduce hudud is “haram”, the local chapter of hardline Islamist group Hizbut Tahrir said, insisting that Islamic law must be implemented in its entirety in Malaysia without approval from Parliament or state assemblies.

The group said putting hudud through debates in the state legislative assembly or the Dewan Rakyat ultimately subjects the sacred law to the approval of man.

“This is categorically haram because the authority to make laws is vested only upon Allah and man is ordered to implement them, not vote to decide on their implementation,” Hizbut Tahrir spokesman Abdul Hakim Othman said in a statement

He added that the use of the democratic system to approve hudud here has also given room to non-Muslims, liberalists and secularists to ridicule and insult the law.

“Their malicious reactions to hudud result from the idea of freedom and the reality of democracy in deifying the human intellect and denying the role of religion in regulating the life of man,” he said.

Those guilty of criticising Islam, he added, should be punished.

Hakim went on to say that Putrajaya must implement all of Allah’s laws, and not just hudud, in a comprehensive Islamic rule that encompasses every aspect of government, including its economic, social and foreign policies as well as education.

Hudud, he noted, is only one category of the Shariah law under the Islamic punishment system or “uqubat”. Other categories include qisas/jinayat, ta’zir and mukhalafat.

“The government is obliged to implement the laws of Allah comprehensively in every inch of the land under its authority and not absconding itself from the responsibility, while asserting that the undertaking rests on the state or province,” Hakim said.

“It is about time that Muslims unite and intensify efforts to re-establish the Caliphate upon the way of the Prophethood which shall implement not only hudud, but the Shariah in its entirety and shall exalt Islam and its followers and abject disbelief and its followers.”

Hizbut Tahrir aims to establish an Islamic state in Malaysia and a worldwide caliphate as part of its global network, although it has never explained how.

The group previously insisted that in a caliphate, the Islamic penal code of hudud applies to all citizens as part of Shariah law.

Last week, the Kelantan state legislative assembly passed amendments to the Shariah Criminal Code (II) 1993 Enactment to pave the way for the controversial implementation of hudud laws in the state.

Following that, business radio station BFM produced a video questioning if Kelantan can fix its economy by implementing hudud, causing its journalist Aisyah Tajuddin to receive death and rape threats from incensed Muslims.