Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad rejected claims that he is anti-Islam for not implementing hudud when he was in power, as he had in his time declared Malaysia an Islamic state.
As such, he said, he cannot be equated to the DAP, which some Islamic scholars have deemed haram (forbidden) for Muslims to support due to its anti-hudud stance.
“There are two things, not agreeing with the hudud and not agreeing with Islamic state.
“I declared Malaysia an Islamic state and we are now acknowledged by everyone as such, including in Palestine,” he told reporters in Kuala Lumpur today.
Mahathir added that his objection is not for hudud per se , but hudud as “interpreted by PAS”.
“That, I cannot support,” he said at a Perdana Global Peace Foundation event to symbolically commemorate the sending of 750,000 litres of clean water to Gaza, Palestine.
Mahathir said that in his view, hudud should be fair and not be driven by “desires”.
“Like those pictures we saw of the woman who was shot for allegedly committing adultery. That is not fair, but driven by desire ( nafsu ),” he said.
He was referring to a video published by Al-Jazeera of a woman being shot, to cheers from the crowd, by a man whom officials confirm is part of the Taliban.
The man cites a verse from the Quran, which states that adultery is a sin.
Yesterday, PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim questioned why scholars are singling out DAP for its anti-hudud stance when Mahathir, too, did not want to implement hudud.
Umno-owned daily Utusan Malaysia had on Wednesday and Thursday front-paged religious scholars who say that it is haram to support the DAP.
Commenting on these views, Mahathir said that it is up to Muslims to decide whether to accept these views or not.
“These are the views of those with knowledge, I can’t say whether they are right or wrong as I am not that knowledgeable when it comes to religion.
“But Muslims are not even following what is stated in the Quran, which is Allah’s orders, so I suppose not many will follow what these religious people say,” he said.
