WHO ARE YOU TO THREATEN NON-MUSLIMS – MCA FLAYS PAS FOR THREAT TO DERAIL CUSTODY BILL

PETALING JAYA: MCA Youth has condemned PAS for issuing a warning that it would resist amendments to the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act should non-Muslims interfere in amendments to Syariah laws.

Its secretary-general Datuk Leong Kim Soon said the warning by PAS’ secretary-general Datuk Takiyuddin Hassan should be “condemned in the harshest terms.”

“This warning is an unequivocal threat against non-Muslims and cannot be accepted,” Leong said in a press statement on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Takiyuddin said Muslims would oppose amendments to the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act if non-Muslims continued to interfere in the Private Member’s Bill on enhancing Syariah laws.

The proposed amendments to the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act revolve around the custody and conversion of children from a civil marriage where one spouse has converted to Islam.

PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang had moved the Private Member’s Bill to amend the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965, commonly known as Act 355, which would increase the power of the Syariah courts to impose stiffer penalties for offences, excluding the death penalty.

“It is disappointing that PAS blames non-Muslims who oppose Act 355 as violating the rights of Muslims,” said Leong.

He said MCA did not object to the Bill simply “for the sake of opposing” but because PAS had not explained clearly how non-Muslims would not be affected by it.

“If PAS demands mutual respect, it should listen to the voices of the masses who oppose the Private Member’s Bill, rather than insisting on the implementation of hudud criminal codes which are unconstitutional,” he said.

ANN