KUALA LUMPUR, May 25 — The government should intervene as little as possible in the daily lives of Muslims instead of trying to legislate against every sin, Doha-based Muslim scholar Dr Jasser Auda said today.

Jasser also criticised the implementation of hudud in a multicultural society, insisting that dual criminal laws will lead to double standards and should never be implemented if does not pass democratic and constitutional challenges.

“It does not create a true Islamic state to me, it creates dictatorship,” Jasser said, referring to a system where religion completely overlaps with the state.

“If you give the state the power to watch over people’s food, drink and what they wear, and who they meet ... then the state has a lot of power. Islamically speaking, I find this wrong. It is not the role of the state to do that.

“Muhammad didn’t treat every sin as crime…He treated some sins as crime when the sin affects public order, the public peace,” added the Islamic studies professor.

Jasser, a founding member of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, was the keynote speaker of a roundtable on maqasid syariah, or the higher intentions of Shariah, organised by the Global Movement of Moderates Foundation.

Malaysia practises a dual-track legal system, with secular civil courts that apply to all citizens and a Shariah version that only binds and acknowledges Muslims.

Each state enacts its own Shariah criminal law that dictates a Muslim’s worship and public conduct, among others.

Jasser said that Islamic and civil laws can only run parallel when it comes to family law, and not in a criminal code, such as the controversial hudud.

“I don’t believe in parallel laws for criminal law, to me that is not acceptable. Because a criminal law is for everybody,” said the European Council for Fatwa and Research member.

“You cannot define crime in a society with more than one standard. I don’t think you can define crime according to religion,” he added.

He also cautioned against implementing hudud when the public cannot come to a consensus on the matter, saying that unity and harmony serve a much more important purpose in society.

“In this case, the [higher intentions] of the hudud is to be a deterrent and to achieve justice and balance in the society, let us agree on the ends and not the means,” he added, saying that there are other ways to achieve it.

In February, Malay Mail Online reported international Muslim scholar Dr Tariq Ramadan as saying that the pursuit of justice must take precedence over laws and punishment in the implementation of the Shariah.