Nazri was responding to Kelantan Deputy Mentri Besar Datuk Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah who disclosed to ‘Malay Mail Online’ in a recent interview that PAS’ true intention in amending the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965, also known as Act 355, was not to enhance the Islamic courts punitive powers within the state, but nationwide. — Picture by Choo Choy May

SABAK BERNAM, June 15 — PAS’ Shariah Bill will not automatically unlock the door to Kelantan-style Islamic punishments nationwide, federal minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz said today.

The tourism and culture minister said Islamic laws are a state prerogative and as such, Kelantan’s hudud-like Shariah enactments cannot be applied beyond its borders.

“Religion is a state issue and the state assembly in Kelantan must pass the enactment. You cannot simply use the Kelantan enactment in other states.

“Kelantan is not Malaysia. Kelantan is not Malacca or Perak. Kelantan is Kelantan. So 355 is a federal law, but when [you] want to implement, the state assembly must have its own enactment,” he told reporters during a breaking of fast event here.

Nazri was responding to Kelantan Deputy Mentri Besar Datuk Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah who disclosed to Malay Mail Online in a recent interview that PAS’ true intention in amending the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965, also known as Act 355, was not to enhance the Islamic courts punitive powers within the state, but nationwide.

The Umno supreme council member rejected Mohd Amar’s assertion, saying the PAS state lawmaker was not fully cognisant of Shariah law.

Nazri said that Act 355 is a federal law, but added that for it to take effect, each state must pass its own Shariah legislation.

“The Act gives a right, so if he wants to practise in other states that means the respective state assembly will have its own enactment so that it complies with 355.

“So no need to teach me. I was the law minister before and I know the Act is a federal Act,” the veteran lawmaker added.

The Padang Renggas MP took a swipe at the Kelantan deputy mentri besar for pushing stricter Islamic criminal laws, saying there is no fixed template for hudud globally.

“I want to ask, in this world is there a template that says that you need to comply with these regulations to be an Islamic country?

“Please show me, if he says that, that means even in Kelantan they are not Islamic. If that is the case, even his ancestors did not practise the right Islamic practices,” Nazri said of Mohd Amar.

PAS’s Shariah Bill, tabled by the Islamist party’s president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang in the Dewan Rakyat last month, has been a hot potato for Malaysians nationwide as well as in the run-up to the June 18 twin by-elections for Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar.

Critics fear amending the federal law will open the door to hudud nationwide even though over 80 per cent of Malay Muslims surveyed through an unofficial Twitter poll welcomed its introduction, seeing the religious criminal law as a potential useful tool to arrest corruption.