By: Peng Yi Feng (translated name)
Oriental Daily, 04-06-2014

The private member’s bill on the implementation of hudud proposed by Kelantan government will not be tabled in this month’s parliamentary session, whereas the technical committee set up by central government together with Kelantan state government has yet to discuss on the technical aspect of the proposed hudud. In view of this, non-Muslims who had objected to the move should pause for a moment and to wait until the private member’s bill is being tabled in parliament before launching another round of objection.

However, non-Muslims should also make a self reflection on why are they so afraid of the hudud and went all out rejecting it when it is not affecting them? Is it because of the spirit of empathy that they cannot bear to see their Muslim friends’ limb being truncated? If they are so concerned about the fate of the Muslims, then why did they not raise objection against the Shariah Court Criminal Jurisdiction Act and the existing Shariah Criminal Code are being enforced in all the states? These Shariah laws had prohibiting the Muslims from consuming alcohol and involve in gambling activities.

I still remember that many years ago, MCA members in their efforts to defend the non-Muslims’ right to consume alcoholic drinks, had organised a banquet in Kota Bharu and drank a lot of alcohols. However, MCA assemblymen in other states had supported the Shariah Criminal Code. Now that not only the whole party had rejected the implementation of Shariah criminal law in Kelantan, it had also called on the Chinese societies to cry out loudly in opposing to the hudud. Perhaps the Muslim brothers should thank MCA for their defense of justice, but looking back, why did MCA support the Shariah Penal Code earlier on?

The Shariah Penal Code and Shariah Court Criminal Jurisdiction Act has yet to impose upon the non-Muslims but some parents when converted to Muslim, had also secretly converted their children, causing a lot of problems to non-Muslims.

Few days ago, a bride was being taken away forcibly by the Selangor Religious Department (Jais) during a Hindu wedding ceremony at a Hindu temple, this has been regarded as a landmark case. The bride’s NRIC showed that she is a Muslim, so there is nothing wrong for Jais to bring her back for questioning as the department was acted in accordance with Section 10 of the Selangor Shariah Criminal Procedure Code 1995. However, the bride did not convert into Islam voluntarily. She was being converted by her irresponsible father who did not think about the consequences when he did this. She had been trying very hard hoping to remove the word “Islam” from her identity card but it was all in vain. Since she did not convert to Islam voluntarily, she cannot be accused of insulting Islam. If Jais bring her to the Shariah court, it would trigger off a big legal warfare.

When will the Shariah Criminal Code become the national law is still too early to predict but the existing Shariah Criminal Code and Shariah Criminal Procedure Code in all the states will continue to create religious conflicts. In the long run, this is not conducive to national unity.

Original Source: 伊斯兰刑事条例