Acting PAS Dewan Ulama chief Mahfodz Mohamed hit out at party leaders and members alike today for being 'in cahoot with political allies' to ridicule party president Abdul Hadi Awang.

"Lately, we see our president being ridiculed by our political allies.

"It's even worse when there are PAS members and leaders who are in cahoots with them and together ridiculing our president," he said, without mentioning any names.

According to Mahfodz ( photo ), loyalty to a leader was one of the prerequisites in achieving victory and this should therefore be stressed as a PAS principle.

He said this in his speech to the Dewan Ulama muktamar in Taman Melewar, Gombak, today as part of the run-up to the PAS Muktamar (general assembly), which begins tomorrow.

Elaborating on the pre-requisites in achieving victory, Mahfodz said the strength of an Islamic organisation lies on the loyalty of its members for the top leadership, in both good and trying times.

'Leader's instructions must be followed'

“A leader’s instructions must be followed as long as it is not against Islam.

"(Because) once loyalty is gone, the leader will be left to fend for himself against attacks by the enemies and the organistion will therefore become weak," Mahfodz said.

"As such, a leadership revival must occur. This muktamar gives space to renew the mandate for the party's leadership."

He also hit out at PAS members and leaders who had, together with their political allies, delayed efforts in the strengthening of Islamic criminal laws.

Efforts to implement the laws were weakened through so-called academic arguments, he said.

'Islamic terms have been misused'

"Terms viewed as Islamic have been used to poison the principles of PAS members.

"Terms such as 'maqasid syariah' and 'fiqh aulawiyat' have been misused to rationalise their resistance to the implementation of Islamic criminal laws.

"These are the subtle poisons being planted. The reality is that it happens because they want to appease political allies who, of course, do not believe in Allah's syariah."

As such, such "poisons" must be destroyed with effective medicine, Mahfodz said.

“Those who offer poison must be advised,” he said, and he went on to remind the party members by citing a Quranic verse that urges Muslims to do as told by Allah instead of following their whims and fancies.

He also lauded Hadi’s move to table a Private Member’s Bill on hudud in Parliament, which, he believes, would develop further the Islamic party.

“It’s not easy for a party like Umno, which does not fight for Islam, to support hudud because it is not Umno's fight.

“But bringing the hudud bill to Parliament is a step forward towards development. It is in fact a noble thing to do.

“Let’s hope that we will achieve victory,” Mahfodz added.