The actual resolution by PAS is this:
Mendesak Majlis Fatwa Kebangsaan membuat penyelidikan ke atas SIS yang membawa aliran Islam Liberal dan seterusnya mengharamkan pertubuhan tersebut sekiranya terbukti bertentangan dengan syariat Islam serta membuat program pemulihan ke atas ahli-ahlinya.
The key words are “penyelidikan” and “sekiranya terbukti”. This is clearly a call to investigate and if found to be against the syariat, only then to take action. In the earlier part (the preamble), PAS is expressing its own opinion.
I agree that PAS is making an accusation against SIS but I do not agree that it amounts to a challenge to the Fatwa Council akin to that: “We have decided that SIS is a threat to Islam; you should investigate and then ban them.” We shouldn’t be adding our own words to the resolution. The call is to investigate, period.
I recently attended the National Convention of Kelab Penyokong PAS held in Klang. According to the leaders of the club (all non-Muslims of course) they now have some 60,000 members. Their message was that they know very well PAS aspires to set up an Islamic government and that their position was that they were convinced that an Islamic government would better protect their rights as compared to the present set-up. The reason PAS supports the setting up of the club is to engage non-Muslims in open and candid discussion. But these are early days and much more engagement and discussion is necessary to explain Islam to the non-Muslims.
Islam is not averse to dissenting views. Some have said that we should not “ban” organisations with whom we disagree. This is off-track. It is not a matter of mere disagreement, which is perfectly understandable and OK. The problem is the name SIS is using. By using Islam in its name, some people might think that it is an Islamic organisation and thus get confused as to what Islam actually stands for. That’s why that if SIS changed its name and did not purport to be an Islamic organisation, then what it says or does would not bother me.
I would like to add that if SIS maintains “Islam” in its name their actions and statements must at least conform to the basic tenets of Islam. If one would have noticed, PAS is accusing SIS of “mengancam aqidah” which is the very foundation of the “Islamness” of a person.
I confess that I am a member of PAS (a low level activist). The opinion expressed here is strictly my own and I am not authorised to speak for the party.
Posted on 13 June 2009. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
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