DOES PAS BARU A.K.A. GHB WANT TO ABOLISH THE SHARIA?

Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad should, therefore, be talking about reviewing the Sharia itself. Why are Muslims punished for certain acts and deeds while non-Muslims are not? This is not considered accorded equal treatment or being treated equally before the law. And that is unconstitutional and therefore not good governance.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad of PAS Baru a.k.a. GHB said that good governance is more important than Hudud. Hence the new party will not be pushing for the implementation of Hudud like his old party, PAS, is. I take it, therefore, that the Hudud agenda has been abandoned.

Around 20 years ago I wrote an article regarding Hudud, which was published in the PAS party newspaper, Harakah. For those who need a better understanding of what Hudud means there are some points below, which you can refer to.

Anyway, in short, Hudud is a part of the Islamic Sharia laws or a component of the Sharia. It is not really a stand-alone law, as some may believe. Hence to analyse Hudud we need to analyse the Sharia as a whole.

By not implementing Hudud or by rejecting Hudud that does not mean we decriminalise what are considered crimes in Islam. Hudud deals just with the punishment of these crimes. The crimes still remain crimes.

For example, robbery and theft are still crimes. Hudud tells us how robbers and thieves are to be punished. Even if you do not apply the Hudud punishment to these crimes, robbery and theft are still crimes and the perpetrator would be punished in other (non-Hudud punishment) ways.

Malaysia already has laws passed by Parliament to punish all sorts of criminal acts. No other laws can override Acts of Parliament so the Hudud form of punishment is a non-starter anyway. And these laws passed by Parliament apply to Muslims as well as non-Muslims. There is no discrimination regarding religion where Muslims are punished but non-Muslims are not (like how those propagating Hudud are proposing).

A crime is a crime. If you murder someone, whether you are a Muslim or non-Muslim, you should be treated equally and not receive a different punishment just because you happen to be of a certain religion.

In short, the Federal Constitution of Malaysia says we are all equal before the law. However, if we are punished because we happen to be Muslim but not punished because we happen to be non-Muslim then that violates the Constitution.

Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, therefore, should be talking about good governance in a more holistic nature. It should not just be about money or how the taxpayers’ money is managed. It should include civil liberties, justice, equality, compassion, and many more issues meant to make Malaysia a more civilised society or, as Anwar Ibrahim is fond of saying, masyarakat madani.

Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad should, therefore, be talking about reviewing the Sharia itself. Why are Muslims punished for certain acts and deeds while non-Muslims are not? This is not considered accorded equal treatment or being treated equally before the law. And that is unconstitutional and therefore not good governance.

If Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad and his GHB are serious about good governance and civil liberties, then Muslims should not be singled out for punishment that non-Muslims do not receive. If not then GHB is not really sincere about its so-called struggle and all this talk that GHB is different from PAS is just a load of bullshit.

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What exactly is sharia law? The word comes from the Arabic term for a clear path to water – and in the deserts of the Middle East, from which Islam sprang, that is literally the way of life.

Thus sharia is supposed to guide, in every aspect, how practising Muslims are to live – with punishments for those who transgress.

Sharia law is derived from two main sources. The first is the Koran, the Holy Book, which contains God’s words as revealed to the Prophet Mohammad. The second is the Sunna, which is the example of how Mohammad lived his own life and his teachings, known as hadith.

Throughout its history sharia law has relied heavily on the interpretation or consensus of Islamic scholars and lawyers. (Mail Online, 8 Feb 2008)

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Hadd means limit or prohibition; plural hudud. A punishment fixed in the Quran and hadith for crimes considered to be against the rights of God. The six crimes for which punishments are fixed are theft (amputation of the hand), illicit sexual relations (death by stoning or one hundred lashes), making unproven accusations of illicit sex (eighty lashes), drinking intoxicants (eighty lashes), apostasy (death or banishment), and highway robbery (death).

Strict requirements for evidence (including eyewitnesses) have severely limited the application of hudud penalties. Punishment for all other crimes is left to the discretion of the court; these punishments are called tazir. With the exception of Saudi Arabia, hudud punishments are rarely applied, although recently fundamentalist ideologies have demanded the reintroduction of hudud, especially in Sudan, Iran, and Afghanistan. (Oxford University)

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Sharia law is divided into two main sections:

1. The acts of worship, or al-ibadat, called the 5 pillars of Islam:

Affirmation (Shahadah): there is no god except Allah and Muhammad is his messenger

Prayers (Salah): five times a day

Fasts (Sawm during Ramadan)

Charities (Zakat)

Pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj)

2. Human interaction, or al-mu’amalat, which includes:

Financial transactions

Endowments

Laws of inheritance

Marriage, divorce, and child custody

Foods and drinks (including ritual slaughtering and hunting)

Penal punishments

Warfare and peace

Judicial matters (including witnesses and forms of evidence)

Sharia recognizes three categories of crimes:

Hudud: crimes against God with fixed punishment

Qisas: crimes against Muslims where equal retaliation is allowed

Tazir: crimes against Muslims or non-Muslims where a Muslim judge uses his discretion in sentencing

There are seven crimes under Hudud: theft, highway robbery, zina (illicit sex), sexual slander (accusing someone of zina but failing to produce four witnesses), drinking alcohol, publicly disputing Imam, and apostasy (leaving Islam and converting to another religion or becoming an atheist).