'Kelantan enactment on hudud is PAS ulama's law, not syariah'

It is wrong to brand those who do not support the implementation of the syariah enactment on hudud in Kelantan as "deviant" or "apostate", because it is a man-made law, and not syariah, says Islamic scholar Wan Ji Wan Hussin.

The PKR Youth exco member said this was evident in the fact that the enactment was amended in 2015, from its original 1993 version, while God's law cannot be amended.

"The enactment (in Kelantan) itself is filled with the views of PAS ulama, and not syariah," he said.

"So if someone is an apostate for rejecting this enactment, then the PAS ulama who amended it must be even 'greater apostates'. To amend it must be even worse than rejecting it. And this is an impossibility," he said in a Facebook posting.

The hudud enactment came into the spotlight again after the government last week prioritised a motion by PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang to table his Private Members' Bill to amend a law on syariah court jurisdictions.

The bill Hadi seeks to table is to raise the threshold of penalties which could be meted out by the syariah court, according to syariah laws in corresponding states.

If passed, this paves the way for hudud to be implemented in Kelantan, in accordance with the state enactment.

Wan Ji said the motion by Hadi last Thursday was also not God's law.

"So anyone who rejects this motion cannot be branded kafir (disbeliever), murtad (apostate), munafik (hypocrite) and deviant as is being accused in social media," he said.

The government's decision to prioritise Hadi's motion on the last day of the second Dewan Rakyat session caused shockwaves in BN.

Ministers from BN component parties Gerakan, MCA and MIC threatened to resign if Hadi's bill is passed into law.-Mkini