PETALING JAYA: The recent decision by the Federal Court to strike down 16 provisions in Kelantan’s shariah enactment has been misconstrued by detractors as liberals undermining Islam’s status in the country, an Islamic think tank said.
Islamic Renaissance Front (IRF) director Dr Ahmad Farouk Musa also said the matter had been “blown out of proportion”.
He said such a view had also turned problematic as it had led to claims that liberals were out to transform Malaysia into a secular state.
In an interview with Astro Awani tonight, Farouk said he had hoped for a civil discourse on the matter.
“But we don’t have that kind of civility. The civility is lost in the whole discourse,” he said.
In 2022, lawyer Nik Elin Zurina Nik Abdul Rashid and her daughter, Tengku Yasmin Nastasha Tengku Abdul Rahman, filed a petition challenging the constitutionality of 18 provisions in Kelantan’s Syariah Criminal Code (I) Enactment 2019.
Earlier this month, in an 8-1 ruling, the Federal Court struck down 16 of the provisions on the grounds that they violated the Federal Constitution.
The ruling was criticised by PAS and Bersatu, both of which claimed that it would threaten shariah laws in other states and affect the status of Islamic law in Malaysia.
PAS secretary-general Takiyuddin Hassan had even described the verdict as a “dark day in history for Muslims”.
Farouk proposed a roundtable between PAS and liberal groups in the country to find a middle ground on the verdict by the Federal Court.
He said he had already mooted the idea of a roundtable to Gerakan, PAS’s ally in Perikatan Nasional.
He also hoped to see non-Muslim intellectuals take part in the discourse and not leave the Muslims alone to discuss the matter.
“Everyone wants peace in this country, everyone wants to move forward as we are more concerned with our economy, and these kinds of issues don’t make it (the economy) better,” he said.
Article as published on FMT :
