Non-Muslim rights promised by Allah, says Hadi

By Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani

Hadi said “non-Muslims are part of Malaysia and Islam teaches us how to govern a country with a multi-religious society.”

SHAH ALAM, Jan 9 – PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang said tonight that there must be a paradigm shift within his party to accept the importance of non-Muslims in its struggle to defend its Islamic convictions. Hadi stressed that Islam had always taught Muslims to respect and protect the rights of non-Muslims.
“There must be a paradigm shift and we cannot be like Umno who purposely ignores its neighbours, MCA and MIC. They can easily forget and ignore their neighbours. This shows their illogical politics.
“We have to realise that non-Muslims are part of Malaysia and Islam teaches us how to govern a country with a multi-religious society,” he told a rally of more than 8,000 supporters at Stadium Malawati here tonight.
Hadi argued that the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) coalition symbolised a paradigm shift in PAS’s politics.
“Islam not only teaches us to respect Muslims but also non-Muslims and their places of worship. This is not a promise from PAS or PKR but from Allah.
“Pakatan Rakyat has been a success and we want this to be defended and strengthened. Hopefully Allah will give us victory in the general election,” he said.
Hadi’s message of political inclusiveness comes after reports that PAS was seeking to revive unity talks with Umno.
Earlier Hadi met with Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to close ranks after a shaky start to the year.
Top of the agenda for the meeting between Opposition Leader Anwar and the PAS president was the Christmas eve audience with the Yang diPertuan Agong, which was attended by Hadi, PAS spiritual leader Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, PAS deputy president Nasharudin Mat Isa and Umno’s top two leaders.
The dinner was seen as another attempt to revive the talks on political co-operation with Umno in the name of Malay/Muslim unity, although both Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Nik Aziz have refused to comment on the meeting.
However Hadi told his supporters tonight that Islam would always remain the party’s political end.
“There will be those who question the link between religion and politics. This shows that the person is ignorant of Islam even though he is a Muslim,” he said.
Hadi said PAS would have to be patient and take the correct route to capture Putrajaya.
“Allah has warned us that we must be on the right path and not follow the path of people that do not understand. There are those who want it quick and easy and win with the easy route. And there are those who are not confident of winning and believe that they weak.
“We must be patient and take the right route,” he said.
Nik Aziz later added that Umno leaders must not forget that death comes to all.
“Umno is not the government of Malaysia and I am not the government of Kelantan because this land belongs to Allah. Everything is created by Allah and every person will experience death,” he said.
The question of political co-operation with Umno became a major campaign issue in the 2009 PAS election after it was revealed that its leaders, including PAS deputy president Nasharuddin Mat Isa and Selangor chief Datuk Hasan Ali, met then prime minister Tun Abdullah Badawi and former Selangor mentri besar Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Khir Toyo after Election 2008 to explore the possibility of forming a unity government.
Leaders aligned to Nik Aziz then accused Nasharuddin of conspiring to take PAS out of PR, but the deputy president successfully defended his post in a three-cornered fight with Mohamad Sabu and Kelantan executive councillor Datuk Husam Musa.
Sources familiar with the latest move to bring PAS into the BN government revealed that both Hadi and Nasharuddin would be given prominent roles in Putrajaya if the party decides to abandon PR, but Nik Aziz continues to be the major obstacle in bringing the party closer to the ruling coalition.
PAS holds 23 parliamentary seats within the PR coalition and controls two states, Kelantan and Kedah. Its presence in the other two PR-ruled states, Penang and Selangor, is also crucial to maintain PR’s majority and Malay support.