Amde Sidik, who started an online petition calling for the Federal Constitution to be renegotiated, said he hopes the campaign will spark wider debate on hudud.

When contacted today, he vented his frustrations over the condescending remarks levelled against non-Muslims - and sometimes even among Muslims themselves - implying that they were not qualified to talk about the issue.

“If you are not a Muslim and you start complaining about this, you’d obviously become a target.

“I wondered, if you are a Muslim and you start taking about the same subject, would you be treated the same?

“What I have been noticing is that even if you are a Muslim from Sabah and Sarawak, the ulama from Peninsular Malaysia especially (would criticise you)… there was a recent statement mentioning that Sarawak Muslims are ignorant.

“I think it is very uncalled for,” said Amde, who is a Muslim from Sabah.

He told Malaysiakini it was as though one must graduate from a Middle Eastern university, especially Al-Azhar University in Egypt, in order to participate in public discourses on hudud.

This should not be the case, he said, as even graduates from local universities were capable of articulating the issue.

Even Muslims in countries such as US and Australia were able to debate on the topic, Amde noted.

“But this is not happening in Malaysia,” he said.

“The idea of this petition is just to highlight and make sure people appreciate, take up the challenge, and to debate - not just leave (the issue) like that,” he added.

Taking first step

The petition was launched last Sunday. The campaign is aimed at Malaysians in Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan, and its message is addressed to the government and Members of Parliament.

The campaign was launched in response to the government’s motion to fast-track PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang’s Private Member’s Bill in the Dewan Rakyat on May 26.

The Private Member’s Bill seeks to remove federal legal obstacles to PAS’ plans to implement its version of hudud in Kelantan.

As of 3.40pm yesterday, the petition has garnered 394 signatories.

However, Amde said he has not set any target on the number of signatories, nor made any plans on what to do next.

“I don’t know. I have no plan yet, but let’s see how people respond after a few weeks,” he said.