KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 17 — Having hudud laws will not guarantee zero crime, former Perlis mufti Datuk Dr Juanda Jaya said as PAS seeks to table a Bill that critics say will open the door to implementing the strict Islamic penal code in Malaysia.
The Islamic scholar pointed out that Prophet Muhammad also did not manage curb crime during his lifetime, adding that other factors must be addressed for hudud to fully succeed as a mechanism to tackle social problems.
“If a person says if hudud is implemented it will solve all social problems the that person is ignorant. Hudud is merely a mechanism to solve [some of] the people’s problems.
“If they assume implementing Islamic laws will produce an angelic society? Than they are ignorant about Islam,” Juanda said in an interview last week with Projek MMO, Malay Mail Online’s sister publication in Bahasa Malaysia.
“Vice and crime existed within the Madina Islamic society. The prophet was there at the time along with divine revelations, yet theft and adultery took place,” he added.
The assertion comes amid the ongoing polemic over PAS’s attempt to augment the Shariah Courts’ punitive powers through its president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang’s private member’s Bill, which has made it to the Dewan Rakyat’s Order Paper in this sitting.
In the interview Juanda, now a state lawmaker representing Jemoreng in Sarawak, said hudud should not be used as the sole mechanism to address social problems, but instead urged all parties to work together and focus their energy on tackling the root causes.
“What causes social problems? Could be ignorance, lack of education, weak enforcement and lack of attention from society.
“So who must act? Of course the society itself. Not only the prime minister and ministers but also community leaders,” he said.
He also pointed out that Muslim community leaders like the imams appeared more interested in bickering among themselves for positions instead of working towards improving their respective communities.
“What happen to the functions of village head and imams? They seem to be more interested in fighting among themselves for posts,” he said.
Juanda also asserted that forgiveness was paramount in Islam, a quality that gave the religion much of its appeal.
Pointing to Saudi Arabia, the former mufti claimed the Middle Eastern country seldom carry out hudud penalties despite its strict Shariah laws.
“I have been to Saudi Arabia more than 30 times and I seldom see them carrying it out. In fact I have never seen them,” he said.
“The penalties are carried out in the open but yet we don’t see it that often,” he added.
In a statement this evening, Hadi replied to non-Muslim critics who pointed out that his Bill was a thinly-disguised proposal to introduce hudud that he was only seeking to enhance the Shariah courts’ punitive powers instead of following an “inherited colonial” system he claimed to be ineffective to tackle rising crime among Muslims.
