No threat to syariah law, says Selangor exco man

KLANG: The Federal Court decision on the Kelantan syariah law enactments does not in any way imply or insinuate that state Islamic laws were under threat or were inferior to federal laws.

“A crime is still a crime. It does not mean that a crime under Islamic law is not a crime under civil law,” said Selangor Islamic and cultural innovation committee chairman Dr Mohammad Fahmi Ngah (pic).

“The only thing that would perhaps be is the difference in the quantum of punishment,” said Dr Fahmi, adding that, from a legal standpoint, the Federal Court had the right to make that decision.

Asked if the decision would adversely affect the syariah laws in other states, Dr Fahmi said he did not see the connection.

According to Dr Fahmi, when two separate legal systems, such as federal and state syariah laws, address the same crime, the person found guilty is offered an option.

“Of course, he will pick the option with the lighter sentence,” he said, adding that in most cases, punishment meted out by federal laws was harsher.

Punishment under syariah law was capped and limited to a jail term of not more than three years, a fine of not more than RM5,000, and only a maximum of six strokes of the rotan.

Selangor faced a similar situation in 2021 when the Federal Court held that the state law covering sodomy encroached into federal jurisdiction.

The case was brought to the Federal Court by Iki Putra Mubarak in 2019, who claimed the Selangor Syariah Criminal Enactment 1995 had no jurisdiction to try sodomy cases.

The Federal Court ruled in favour of Iki Putra.

Following this, constitutional expert Prof Shad Saleem Faruqi wrote in his column that prior to the Iki Putra case decision, “state assemblies felt free to pass any law on ‘offences against the precepts of Islam’ despite explicit limits on this power (that this power cannot be exercised in relation to any matter on the federal list or covered by federal law).”

Dr Fahmi said that in the event there was an overlap between federal and syariah laws, the matter could be brought to the National Council for Islamic Religious Affairs (MKI), which is chaired by Selangor Ruler Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah.

Last year, Sultan Sharafuddin had called upon all states to join MKI and become members of its musyawarah (deliberation) platform.