By Kazi Mahmood, IOL South Asia Correspondent

KUALA LUMPUR , June 21 (IslamOnline) - Despite its being a majority Muslim country and an Islamic state according to Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, a large section of the population in Malaysia are against the imposition of the Hudud or Islamic criminal law in the country.

Several businessmen and a handful of supporters of the Party Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) – the strongest opposition party in the Southeast Asian country – voiced their sentiments against the implementation of the Hudud in Terengganu, a northern state in Malaysia controlled by PAS.

Many of them support the statement by Mahathir that even though Malaysia is a fundamentalist Islamic state, it does not mean it has to change the Constitution to make it more Islamic or adopt PAS-inspired criminal laws.

Mahathir Mohamad made the statement Thursday afternoon, June 20, during the annual assembly of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), PAS’s main rival Muslim party.

An unidentified businessman, who is also a PAS supporter, privately told IslamOnline that the country was not yet ready for the Hudud laws.

He insisted that PAS was wrong in its persistence to implement its harsh penalties on Muslims, arguing that Malay Muslims were not prepared for such laws.

“A large section of the population of Muslims does not know the basics of Islam. That is a fact that can be verified anytime. PAS should gear itself in securing the practice of Islam by more Muslims than by jumping forward with the Hudud,” the trader who is involved in import and export business said.

Mohammad Mohsin, an herbalist from Kuala Lumpur , told IslamOnline that PAS should have consulted Islamic history books before imposing the Hudud.

History showed, he said, that the Hudud were practiced in societies that were fully “imbued with Islam, not modern societies like the one in Malaysia where half the population of women are covered with [head] scarves and the rest are not.”

Mohsin, who also supports PAS, said Terengganu may be an experimental place for PAS to start the Hudud, but “PAS will lose political strength by so doing,” he added.

Meanwhile, Mahathir outlined his own view that Malaysia was a progressive Islamic country. He also urged voters to turn away from 'unjust' laws proposed, he said, by PAS in the name of the religion, the Straits Times of Singapore reported Friday.

Responding to a challenge by PAS that the National Front (NF) coalition in power in Malaysia specify the aspects of the proposed law it considers cruel, the Malaysian Premier said if any law formulated by human beings, however learned or pious they might be, results in injustice for the people, then such laws are anti-Islamic.

PAS wants to introduce Hudud laws in July in Terengganu, the east-coast state that it controls with neighbor state Kelantan.

The draft Bill, particularly Section 9, has been the subject of protest by women's groups on the grounds of its being cruel so far as women who might have to claim rape are concerned.

If the victim of an alleged rape fails to produce 'four just witnesses', she stands to be punished.

The PAS-controlled state assembly in Kelantan had approved similar laws in 1993, but they could come into force without approval from the federal government.

However, in Terengganu itself, the population seems to be in full support of PAS, sources told IslamOnline Friday.

PAS wrestled the state from the UMNO after 25 years, defeating the party of Mahathir Mohamad by a landslide that took the country by surprise. Terengganu is a majority Muslim state.

Malaysia is bordered by Thailand up North and by Singapore in the South. Its neighbor, Indonesia , is the largest Muslim nation on earth.

Malaysia is considered the most advanced Muslim state in the world. It boasts the highest building on earth, the Kuala Lumpur City Center (KLCC) towers.

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