Persatuan Ulama Malaysia (PUM) agrees with PAS Youth chief Nasrudin Hasan's suggestion to implement syariah criminal law to curb crime and said it should apply to both Muslims and non-Muslims.

Its secretary Mohd Roslan Mohd Nor said non-Muslims should not fear the law because it safeguards their interests and the government should help non-Muslims understand it.

"The aspect that the government should look at is that syariah law can control crime, because we are convinced that the laws created by Allah are meant to safeguard humanity and the five goals of syariah in Islam.

"(Syariah law) is not only for Muslims but non-Muslims as well," he said when contacted by Malaysiakini today.

He was responding to Nasrudin's proposal yesterday to use syariah law for criminal proceedings since the existing system has failed to prevent crime.

The Temerloh MP noted that between April 1 and July 30, at least 15 cases of shooting incidents had been reported in the media.

Roslan added that the judiciary and the Attorney-General's Chambers should start overhauling Malaysia's legal system to unify the civil and Islamic systems, so that syariah law can be enforced on persons of any creed.

"Not like the existing legal structure now where we have two systems in the country. Why not move the spirit of 1Malaysia so that everything we do are streamlined?" he said.

‘Failure of execution, not law’

Meanwhile, constitutional lawyer Syahredzan Johan disagreed with the Nasrudin’s suggestion, saying it would be unfair and does not address the issue.

He said this is because it would lead to Muslim and non-Muslim criminals facing different penalties under the Syariah and secular criminal law systems, respectively, for similar crimes.

“I don’t feel that this (rise in crime is due to a) failure is of law but of execution; execution in terms of how effective is our police in combatting crime.

“The biggest problem is that the government does not want to admit that we have a crime problem,” he said.

When asked to comment on PUM’s suggestion to unify Malaysia’s secular and Islamic legal systems, Syahredzan again disagreed, saying that it would cause Malaysia to lose its ‘shape’.

“This is a secular country... when Islamic laws are made in this country, it would contradict the ‘shape’ of this country. We would force the law on non-Muslims. This would require a constitutional amendment.

“For me, that amendment would alter the basic structure of the constitution from its original form as a secular state to a de facto Islamic state.

“In my opinion such an amendment is unconstitutional,” he said.

Malaysiakini is also contacting Nasrudin to clarify his suggestion. 

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