PAS: New Judges Are Too Contemporary & Not Making Decisions Based On Religious Sensitivity

By Karissa Lund  •  05 Mar 2021 in News

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According to The Malaysian Insight, Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang, the president of Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) slammed judges who he claimed did not take religious sensitivities into account when deciding cases involving Islamic law.

Hadi said that the situation is now different because new judges are more contemporary and, according to him, no longer able to make judgments with religious sensitivity.

“Unfortunately, there are those among the new judges, who have lost religious sensitivity. They make their decisions based on what they’ve read and studied, rather than backing it with rationale and the discretion that comes with it,” he said.

Hadi also mentioned that non-Muslims judges are more religiously sensitive as compared to new era Muslim judges. He even brought up British judges that were involved in the constitutional amendment for the provision on Islam during pre-independence.

“His Majesty the Yang di-Pertuan Agong is considered a leader of Islam and the British colonialists did not dare to touch him. These factors led British judges in the colonial era to make careful decisions when it came to Islamic affairs. They did not dare to violate the sensitivities of Muslims when the action could be considered an insult to Islam,” he said.

Hadi’s statement comes after the Federal Court’s ruling last week on the Selangor Syariah Court’s judgment regarding an “unnatural sex” case.

ICYMI, the order granted by the Federal Court on 25 Feb is for a declaration that Section 28 is invalid on the ground that it makes provision with respect to a matter in which the Selangor state legislature has no power to make laws and is therefore null and void.

The unanimous decision was made by a nine-member bench led by Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat.

The other judges who presided on the bench were Court of Appeal President Tan Sri Rohana Yusuf, Chief Judge of Malaya Tan Sri Azahar Mohamed, Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Datuk Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim and Federal Court judges Datuk Seri Mohd Zawawi Salleh, Datuk Nallini Pathmanathan, Datuk Vernon Ong Lam Kiat, Datuk Zabariah Mohd Yusof and Datuk Seri Hasnah Mohammed Hashim.

The order was sought by one of the 11 men who were arrested back in 2018 and allegedly harassed by religious authorities at a private residence in Selangor. Read more about it, here.