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Malaysian Islamic Party Challenges Pro-Government Clerics
by Kazi Mahmood for IslamOnline
KUALA LUMPUR, April 9 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The Party Islam Se-Malaysia, or the Pan Malaysian Islamic party, (PAS) will accept any invitation by any Islamic authority in the country to discuss the controversy surrounding a 20-year-old speech by a PAS member, the party announced.
The PAS's announcement came after the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) said that PAS leader Hadi Awang, also chief minister of the state of Terengganu, must retract on a speech he made some 20 years ago in which he allegedly called the UMNO a party of infidels.
PAS president Fadzil Noor said the party was ready to prove to any authority that there was nothing wrong with the decree by Awang.
He said the speech did not contain anything that could have caused the current split among Muslims in the country, as claimed by the UMNO.
A local daily reported that the Institute of Islamic Understanding (IKIM) invited the PAS to a muzakarah next month to discuss the decree that allegedly labels the UMNO as unIslamic.
The PAS said it did not care with which authority to discuss the issue with it, as it stood firmly behind its vice president, Awang. Although the PAS added it was ready to discuss the matter, it also wanted relevant authorities to prove that a decree calling the UMNO infidels (kafirs) was intent on dividing the Malays.
The PAS insisted that it wanted the matter to be put to rest and that the UMNO stop bringing up the issue before and after every election in Malaysia.
Awang, for his part, has said he would not retract from what he said in the speech 20 years ago.
The UMNO states that it felt offended they were not considered Muslims and said the PAS made things worse over the years in election campaigns.
The Islamic party (PAS) controls two states in Malaysia and is the largest opposition party in Parliament, where it controls 25 of the opposition's 47 seats.
The ruling Malay party in Malaysia, the UMNO, said it felt offended that the PAS treated it as a party of infidels, since its members were Malay-Muslims. It also said it considered members of the PAS Muslim brothers, and hoped the opposition party could have the same opinion of them.
UMNO president, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, is currently seeking a discussion with the PAS on issues related to Malay unity and the place of Islam in the country.
Mahathir added that he would also like to know the opinion of the Islamic party on such issues such as that of Malay rulers (kings).
For its part, the PAS has played a cat and mouse game with the prime minister, always demanding that intended talks be on the subject of national unity, rather than Malay unity. The Islamic party, and the opposition, feels that Muslims, in the majority, support them, and are behind their reform movement.
Making matters worse between the two Malay parties, the PAS said it would reject participating in talks if pre-conditions were not respected by the UMNO.
These pre-conditions include the reinstatement of oil royalty payments to the state of Terengganu, and to allow the PAS to publish its newsletter, the Harakah, twice a week.
Noor said he has yet to receive a report from the UMNO agreeing on these conditions.
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