PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang expects more non-Muslims to back the implementation of syariah law in Malaysia after Act 355 is expanded.

Hadi said this is because the law will show Islam is fair and just.

"When they see that syariah law is better, they (non-Muslims) will automatically choose syariah and this is what is feared by those quarters (who oppose the amendments to the Act)," he said.

Hadi said this in his speech at a gathering of Muslim NGOs in conjunction with Hari Raya Aidilfitri at Pusat Islam in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

In the May parliamentary sitting, the government tabled the motion to allow Hadi's Private Member's Bill to amend the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act (also known as Act 355).

This is so to expand the syariah courts' jurisdiction and to pave the way for the implementation of hudud in Kelantan.

However, Hadi requested that his bill be tabled in the October sitting, as it was already the last day of the May sitting.

'Duty of all Muslims to support the bill'

Speaking at the gathering yesterday, Hadi said it is the duty of all Muslims to support the bill so the syariah court will be as powerful as its civil counterpart.

"What's the point of being Muslim if they (Muslims) don't want to raise the stature of their own court," he said, calling Muslim opponents of the bill as "strange".

"The syariah court only affects Muslims and has nothing to do with non-Musims.

"It is strange that non-Muslims would oppose it, and even stranger that there are Muslims supporting those non-Muslims," Hadi said.

The event yesterday was attended by 400 people from various Muslim groups, including Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma), Persatuan Silat Kebangsaan Malaysia (Pesaka) and the Muslim Consumers' Association Malaysia (PPIM).

Kelantan and Terengganu have state enactments allowing hudud.

However, those enactments cannot come into power because Act 355 stipulates that syariah courts can only mete out a maximum penalty of three years' jail, six lashes of the whip and RM5,000 fine.

The Federal Constitution empowers states to implement syariah enactments in accordance to Act 355 and other relevant federal laws.