KUALA LUMPUR, June 5 — Federal Islamic authorities and Barisan Nasional (BN) backbenchers have denied a purported meeting to brief the later on the implementation of hudud in Malaysia.

The denial comes even as documents allegedly outlining a plan to impose Islamic jurisprudence on all Malaysians began circulating online.

An officer with the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) said they have no knowledge of having organised such a meeting with BN lawmakers sometime last month.

“Jakim is not aware and not involved with the said meeting,” the officer with the department’s corporate communications arm said in a brief response to queries by The Malay Mail Online yesterday.

Pulai MP Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed also denied the report, saying there was “no such thing, rubbish lah,” when asked yesterday to confirm if the meeting had indeed taken place.

Chinese-language newspaper Oriental Daily reported on Monday that the proposal was presented at a meeting with parliamentary backbenchers last month.

A paper allegedly prepared by Jakim has since surfaced, outlining plans to incorporate hudud into the Penal Code and subsequent application of Islamic law to all Malaysians, regardless of their faith.

The document — sighted by The Malay Mail Online and believed to be the proposal that was presented at the said meeting — claimed that non-Muslims cannot be exempted from Shariah-based laws as Islam is recognised as the religion of state by the Federal Constitution and supersedes other considerations.

MCA president Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai today said he was also unaware of the purported meeting, but repeated his party’s opposition to any attempt to implement hudud.

“Our forefathers built this nation based on these foundations, strong foundations of a multi-racial society,” he told The Malay Mail Online when contacted.

“This is crucial. The implementation of it (hudud) will affect harmony and cause disunity in this country. There is no need to go into all of this... it is more important to ensure the country is harmonious,” added Liow, who is also a backbencher and Bentong MP.

Gerakan secretary-general and Simpang Renggam MP Liang Teck Meng said he had no knowledge of the alleged meeting or proposal, but stressed the need to look into the legality of any plan to merge civil and Shariah laws and the potential problems.

He said incorporating hudud punishments into the Penal Code might “sound good”, but it is bound to complicate things where offences involve offenders of different faiths.

“It’s not so simple as this. There’s a lot of things to relook into,” he said when contacted.

To Jakim’s alleged contention that hudud can apply to all since Article 3 of the Federal Constitution recognises Islam as the religion of state, Liang said they cannot limit their interpretation to just one section of the apex law.

“There’s also the provision that all must be equal under the law. They just cannot look at one article… this is one of the problems that needs to be addressed,” he said.