'Haram, also, to back Najib who doesn't want hudud?'

PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim today came to the DAP's defence by asking why the party is being singled out, when even the prime minister had said that hudud will never be implemented in Malaysia.

"This campaign by religious extremists, specifically Utusan (Malaysia) says it's haram and sinful to support DAP as they don't support hudud.

"But MCA and Umno itself does not support hudud. (Former premier) Dr Mahathir Mohamad had written a letter to the Kelantan MB to reject the implementation of hudud in Malaysia and Najib reiterated this..." he said.

Najib on Sep 25, 2011 was reported by The Star as saying that the government will not implement hudud as it has to take into consideration current realities.

He was also reported as saying that there are already elements of hudud implemented in Malaysia, but "minus the extreme part".

Speaking after a Pakatan Rakyat council meeting, Anwar said that instead of harping on the hudud issue, it is better for both political divides to “focus on national development and to explain their respective agenda”.

“For us, we maintain that Islam is the federal religion, and we advocate better understanding of Islam in the society and country. Not to make pronouncements (of what is halal and haram) off-hand,” he said.

He added that Najib had only recently urged that religion not be abused for political purposes, but the Umno-owned daily is doing just that.

DAP’s stand: M’sia secular state, Islam official religion

Meanwhile, the DAP parliamentary leader, who was also at the press conference at the PKR headquarters in Petaling Jaya, said that Utusan had acted in an “incendiary and irresponsible” manner.

He said that DAP has always affirmed that it respects Islam as the official religion of the state, but reiterated that Malaysia is a secular state.

Lim said this matches the positions of the nation’s first three prime ministers, including Najib’s father Abdul Razak Hussain.

“Is Utusan saying that these three people are also enemies of Islam, so as to even call them kafir harbi (non-believers hostile to Islam)?” he asked, calling for action against Utusan.

The broadsheet has for two days running front-paged religious scholars who said that it is haram to support the DAP as the party is anti-Islam.