Selangor PAS Youth and Islamic NGO Isma have defended Federal Territories mufti Zulkifli al-Bakri after he was lambasted for urging all parliamentarians to support proposed amendments to the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act.

Isma's ulama council argued that the amendments to Act 355 are something that is clear cut and easy to understand as they only deal with strengthening the jurisdiction of the Syariah Courts and does not go into specifics, which are the purview of the state and not the Dewan Rakyat's.

"Thus the amendments only allow the widening of jurisdiction, it is easy (to understand) and clear cut except to those who are looking for an excuse to reject it," said its chairperson Aznan Hasan in a statement.

He added that maybe it is because of the easily understood nature of the amendment that the FT mufti issued the statement that all Muslims and parliamentarians should support the amendment even before it is tabled in the Dewan Rakyat.

"As it is not too technical, and not too difficult to understand," said Aznan.

As such the Isma expressed its puzzlement when Amanah vice-president Mujahid Yusof Rawa refuted Zulkifli's statement, accusing the mufti of jumping the gun as the Bill to amend Act 355 has yet to be tabled in the House.

Though at the same time Aznan noted that Mujahid failed to lambast those who attacked the Bill before it is tabled, which amounts to the same thing.

The Isma ulama chief said that Mujahid should have engaged the mufti based on his arguments so that these can be discussed during the tabling of the Bill.

Mujahid shouldn't have pointed to existing weaknesses in Syariah laws as an excuse to reject the amendments, said Aznan, hoping that the Amanah leader will be proactive instead to fix what's wrong and use politics to better the sate of Islam in Malaysia and not resort to politicking for its own sake.

In a separate statement, Selangor PAS Youth has decried all Malay Muslim leaders who belittled the FT mufti's statement on Act 355 amendments.

"Our advice to politicians who do so is to start to re-think their actions and return to the truth.

"Those who accuse the FT mufti of failing to understand the amendments to Act 355 are shortsighted, and representative of those who are allergic to efforts of Muslims to actualise Islam," said its information director Ahmad Hakimi Othman.

He said Zulkifli is well known for taking into account each and every side in an argument before forming his own opinion, and would have done so before coming out with his stand on Act 355.

This, argued Hakimi, is unlike political leaders who are using mere technicalities to try and derail the Bill to amend the Act without weighing its merits.

The Bill was initially tabled by PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang on the last day of Parliament sitting in April. It is set to be re-tabled when Parliament resumes for the budget sitting next month.

While it seeks to do away with the restrictions on punishments that can be meted out by the Syariah Courts, its real purpose, said critics, is to allow the implementation of Islamic penal code hudud in Kelantan, where hudud state enactment waiting on the wings.

This is because previously the restrictions on Syariah punishments made it impossible for the hudud enactment to be enforced.