“I still maintain that it is not Islamic. What they (PAS) are proposing is not Islamic,” Mahathir said in a press conference at the re-launch of the Perdana Global Peace Foundation's War Disaster Fund at Yayasan Albukhary in Kuala Lumpur today.
He was responding to a reporter who had asked him to comment on Hadi’s Private Member’s Bill.
Hadi’s bill seeks to amend the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 or Act 355, which limits the syariah court’s punishment to a maximum fine of RM5,000, three years’ jail or six strokes of the rotan.
It is referred to as the ‘Hudud Bill’ as it would ultimately pave the way for the partial implementation of the Islamic penal code, specifically in PAS-ruled Kelantan, which has already passed an enactment to that effect.
Mahathir explained that Islam places a high importance on justice and what PAS is trying to do is unjust.
“If it is Islamic they won’t propose it because Islam stresses justice and they are trying to do something that is unjust,” he said.
As the bill would ultimately pave the way for the partial implementation of hudud law, he cited the example of a punishment under hudud.
“Cut off a Muslim's hands (but) give two months' jail to a non-Muslim for the same crime. That is unjust,” he pointed out.
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