Community must understand hudud law in wider context - Jamil Khir

He said it was better and more accurate for the hudud law to use the Islamic criminal law because hudud was part of the legislation found in the Islamic syariah crime.

"When we talk about hudud, the perception of the public is only focused on one angle. The people may look at hudud from the aspect of chopping off the hand, stoning or whipping.

"But in reality, when one talks about whipping, there are actually rules on whipping. It is not the same as in the civil law where one stroke of the cane is sufficient to leave a mark physically.

"The concept of caning in syariah does not come up to that level, in fact, the caning is aimed at creating greater awareness," he said when closing the Conference of Imams, Religious Teachers and Mosque Committee Members at the Penang state level, here today.

The conference was officially opened by Penang Yang Dipertua Negeri Tun Abdul Rahman Abbas. Also present were Deputy Chief Minister I Datuk Mohd Rashid Hasnon and the Chairman of the State Committee on Religion, Domestic Trade and Consumerism Affairs Abdul Malik Abul Kasim.

The issue on the hudud law in Kelantan became a hot topic for dicsussion when the Kelantan PAS government, through the party's Members of Parliament, planned to bring up a motion for a private bill to implement the hudud law in the Dewan Rakyat in June, to seek Parliament's approval to implement the Syariah Criminal Code (2) 1993 Enactment.

However, the intention of PAS to present the private bill in Parliament was strongly opposed by its coalition partner, DAP, stating that the implementation of hudud had never reached a consensus among the PAS-DAP-PKR coalition.

In another development, Jamil Khir advised tour agencies offering umrah packages to reduce outside activities especially visiting animal farms in Saudi Arabia to avoid the spread of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrom-Coronary Virus (MERS-CoV).