Mahathir Says Islamic Law Based On Malaysia Realities
KUALA LUMPUR, July 1 (IslamOnline & News Agencies)
- Malaysia has implemented Islamic laws to the extent that is possible in a country whose population is not 100 percent Muslim,
Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad told the Malaysian news agency Sunday.
The government took into account the realities of the country when implementing Islamic laws, said the Prime Minister.
A study carried out by the government revealed that no Muslim country had managed to implement the hudud (Islamic penal) law in full, he said during a dialogue with students at the "Symposium on Reaffirming the Idealism of Undergraduates in the New Millennium" at Universiti Malaya. .
Dr Mahathir was commenting on Parti Islam SeMalasia's (PAS) accusation that the government was secular because it did not implement the hudud law.
Arguing that some of the requirements under the hudud law were difficult to satisfy in present times, he cited the need for four male witnesses who had not committed any major sinful acts for rape cases.
"Would four people who have not committed any major sin just sit and watch someone being raped without doing anything, without calling the police. If we are to wait for these four to be witnesses, we won't get justice whereas justice is stressed in Islam," he said.
The Prime Minister said Afghanistan was unable to implement the hudud law despite having an almost 100 percent Muslim population because a third of the people rejected the ruling Taliban regime.
"We believe we are on the right track and will continue with it as we know what needs to be done for the good of the country," he said.
Dr Mahathir said PAS deputy president Abdul Hadi Awang had once stated that the hudud law made up just 0.001 percent of Islamic laws but at the same time called the government secular for not implementing the hudud law.
The Prime Minister also questioned why PAS was giving consideration to non-Muslims in the country only now.
He was referring to Hadi's statement, in response to a question on the type of Islamic state PAS wished to set up, that Malaysia was different from Iran, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistant because its population was not 100 percent.
