Utusan warns Marina about commenting on hudud

Utusan Malaysia cautions social activist Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir to be careful in her criticism of hudud or the Islamic penal code. – The Malaysian Insider pic, May 31, 2015.The Sunday edition of Umno mouthpiece Utusan Malaysia has cautioned social activist Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir to be careful in her criticism of hudud or the Islamic penal code.

Mingguan Malaysia's editors, writing under the pen name of Awang Selamat, today said that the daughter of former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, should not be so hard when commenting on hudud as she was Muslim herself.

They said she should also be careful when discussing matters of religion.

"Awang feels that Marina has the right to say whatever she wants, but she should be careful especially when discussing topics that involve Islam.

"If she is against hudud, it is going overboard for a Muslim to make such harsh comments. What more when hudud is not yet a reality," the paper's editors wrote in an editorial today.

Marina has openly stated her rejection of hudud in Malaysia before, and in a recent interview with an online news portal, reiterated her position, saying she would not want to live in a country where the Islamic penal code was official policy.

“I cannot live in a country where people want to cut off hands, I’m sorry, or stone people to death,” Marina was reported as saying.

“I would never live in Saudi Arabia. I don’t want to live in a country where this is official policy," she had said.

State enactments on hudud punishments have been passed in Kelantan, a state in the northeast of Malaysia's peninsular, but cannot be enforced because federal law and the constitution do not allow for the punishments that include amputation of limbs for theft and caning for alcohol consumption, among other  offenses.

It remains to be seen whether a private member's bill submitted to Parliament will be allowed on the agenda. The bill proposes amendments to a federal law governing the scope of punishment to be meted out by the Shariah courts.

- TMI