The Sabah Council of Churches has weighed into the hudud debate, stating that Putrajaya has an obligation to East Malaysia to stave off the theocratic law.

Sabah Council of Churches president Jerry Dusing acknowledged that while the push for hudud is only for Muslims in Kelantan, the Sabah Christian community has a duty to voice concern.

"Our intention here is not to enter the political or legal debates, but to emphasise that the Federation of Malaysia, at her inception, is first and foremost a multi-religious and pluralistic society with rich varieties of culture,” Dusing said in a statement.

He added that it is on this basis, and guarantees from Malaysia's forefathers, that Sabah and Sarawak had agreed to form the federation with Malaya.

"Hence, it would be inconsistent, and indeed a betrayal of the trust placed by Sabah's forefathers in the Federation of Malaysia, for laws such as Kelantan's hudud enactment - which would have a huge impact on the public as well as upon the multi-religious Malaysians society as a whole - to find a place in our federation, a nation envisaged to be secular at its formation," he said.

Dusing cited the Cobbold Commission's report which agreed that Islam would be the federation's national religion but it would not jeopordise freedom of religion as the federation would be secular.

He added this was likewise expressed in the Malaysia Solidarity Consultative Committee memorandum a few months before the Cobbold Commission's report.

"Therefore, the Sabah Council of Churches urges and calls upon all patriotic Malaysians, irrespective of religious persuasions and including the Kelantan state government, to honour and defend the original intention of our founding fathers and to strengthen the foundation of our federation, and above all, to focus and build on what unite us rather than what divide us," he said.