KUALA LUMPUR, March 23 — Muslim DAP lawmaker Zairil Khir Johari rejected today the hudud law that PAS is trying to implement in Kelantan as an imperfect law created by man.
Zairil pointed out that among the amendments to the Shariah Criminal Code Enactment II 1993 that the Kelantan legislative assembly had passed last week was the prohibition of anal sex among married couples.
“This amendment clearly shows that when a holy religious teaching is implemented as law in a modern country, it is open to an interpretation that loses its holiness,” said Zairil in a statement.
“The teaching in the Quran is perfect and cannot be amended, while the hudud law that was tabled in the Kelantan legislative assembly is clearly far from perfect,” the Bukit Bendera MP added.
Zairil noted that women in Saudi Arabia are forbidden from driving while those in Sudan are prohibited from wearing shorts in the name of Islam.
“Where do we draw the line on interpretation and who has the right to determine such boundaries if everything is supposedly done in the name of the holy Quran?” questioned the Muslim MP.
Zairil also highlighted criticisms of both Kelantan’s and Terengganu’s hudud enactments regarding the position of non-Muslims and the oppression of women.
He further noted that some religious experts believe that death by stoning — a punishment mandated in Kelantan’s hudud enactment — is not found in the Quran but is a hadith that came from Jewish law.
The DAP national assistant publicity secretary stressed that criticisms against the implementation of hudud come not just from non-Muslims and the public, but even from Islamic scholars.
“For example, renowned Islamic scholar Professor Tariq Ramadan has called for a moratorium on hudud because the world has changed and it’s no longer conducive for the implementation of hudud,” said Zairil.
“Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who is among the world’s most renowned Islamic scholars, once said that the Quran has just 10 sentences on hudud, so why are we stressing on those sentences and ignoring more than 6,000 other sentences?” the opposition MP questioned.
PAS, which only holds 21 seats in the 222-seat Parliament, is banking on support from Muslim lawmakers of other parties to help pass its private members’ bills, expected to be tabled soon, in a bid to remove legal roadblocks to the rolling out of hudud in Kelantan.
PKR central committee member Latheefa Koya said Friday that the hudud law that PAS is pushing for is not in line with Quranic teachings, noting four differences between the holy book’s teaching on hudud and Kelantan’s hudud enactment.
Latheefa had pointed out that there is no punishment for apostasy in the Quran and that stoning is not mentioned in the holy scriptures either as punishment, among other differences.
