Act 355 amendments, new law on spreading of non-Muslim religions afoot

 

Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Ahmad Marzuk Shaary said several new syariah legislation will be created and others amended under a five-year plan.

He said among the changes afoot will be amendments to the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 (Act 355) and introducing a Control and Restriction on the Propagation of Non-Muslim Religions Bill.

“In order to strengthen syariah, particularly in the federal territories, the government drafted the Strengthening Syariah Laws Plan, which will be for five years between 2020 and 2025.

“In this plan, the government proposed changes to 11 key syariah legislation, including the creation of new laws and amendments to existing ones,” said Marzuk (above), who is also PAS’ Pengkalan Chepa MP.

The amendment to Act 355 has been a long-time goal of PAS in order to allow the partial implementation of hudud.

This would involve increasing the maximum penalty provided by Act 355 to 30 years imprisonment, 100 lashes of the rotan and a fine of RM100,000.

This is to allow punishments to be meted out that are consistent with hudud.

At present, the maximum punishment under Act 355 is only up to an RM5,000 fine, six lashes of the rotan and three years' imprisonment.

As for the Control and Restriction on the Propagation of Non-Muslim Religions Bill, Marzuk previously raised the proposal after the High Court in Kuala Lumpur ruled that non-Muslims can use the word “Allah”.

Some conservative groups believe the use of the word “Allah” by non-Muslims is a conspiracy to convert Muslims out of their religion.

However, Christians in East Malaysia say they have used the word “Allah” to refer to God for hundreds of years and are only practising their own faith.

There is a large Malay-speaking Christian community in Sabah and Sarawak.

The court ruling itself was a result of a challenge brought by a Christian Melanau from Sarawak, whose CDs on Christianity that referred to God as “Allah” were seized by the authorities.

Under the syariah empowerment plan, there will also be new legislation on wakaf (Islamic trust), muftis and the syariah courts.

This is on top of the amendments to existing syariah legislation governing Muslim religious laws in the federal territories. - Mkini