KUALA LUMPUR, March 23 — Hudud will further compound the jurisdictional overlaps between Malaysia’s secular and Islamic laws that have already caused legal gridlocks such as interfaith custodial battles, MIC’s S. Vell Paari said today.

Telling the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition to clearly reject Kelantan’s bid to enforce the Islamic penal law, the MIC leader said hudud was clearly unconstitutional and would further affect all of Malaysia despite claims it would only concern Muslims.

“Even in the absence of hudud, recent developments have shown how non-Muslims have been at the losing end.

“The custodial battles between non-Muslims and their converted spouses are clear examples. In such cases, even the police have refused to enforce a civil court order,” he said in a statement today.

Given the problems that are already manifest in Malaysia’s dual track system, Vell Paari asked what guarantees Malaysian non-Muslims have that the Islamic penal code would not eventually infringe upon their rights and liberties as is currently happening.

He further said that such rights and liberties are already being eroded despite purportedly being enshrined in the Federal Constitution.

“So I call on all in BN to make a clear stand on this issue and to do the right thing by all Malaysians,” he said.

“I believe this is one of those instances where BN must stamp it’s mark and show the nation that we (BN) are serious about Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s vision of 1Malaysia.”

PAS-ruled Kelantan passed key amendments to its Shariah Criminal Code II 1993 on Thursday in a move to enable the eventual implementation of hudud in the Malay-majority east coast state.

All 12 Umno state lawmakers voted for the amendments but the ruling party’s national leadership has yet to declare if the same support would be given to PAS’s hudud ambition at the federal level.

The 13 BN component parties including Umno are expected to issue a joint statement to declare its position on the controversial issue this week.

The statement is expected to precede PAS’s attempt to table a private members’ Bill in the ongoing Parliament session that will enable Kelantan to carry out punishments under hudud. Among others, the Islamic criminal justice system prescribes amputation as punishment for crimes like stealing.

In 2009, then de facto law minister Nazri announced the Cabinet’s decision to prohibit the unilateral conversion of minors to Islam, noting that this was being abused to escape the responsibilities of a civil union and gain custody of children.

But despite the Cabinet decision, unilateral child conversions continue to take place on a regular basis.

The issue most commonly manifests itself in the form of a legal limbo surrounding the interfaith custody battles, as one non-Muslim spouse attempts to gain custody via the civil courts while the Muslim half — almost always the husband — tries the same via the shariah route.