PAS's Islamic State Document reveals how far detached from reality the party leaders are. With the party now attracting supposedly bright young professionals, I had expected something substantive, not this nonsensical fluff masquerading as a major policy statement.

PAS is falling into the familiar trap of, to quote the Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan, "using Islam as the excuse for the 'us versus them' theology." What Malaysia (indeed the world) needs is not the further deepening of this dangerous schism, rather ways to build bridges of understanding across this unnecessary divide. We are all the children of Adam and thus deserving of our rightful place in this universe of Allah, believers and nonbelievers alike.

Instead of trying to foster a common identity and bring Malaysians together, PAS would permanently divide the citizenry. It would institutionalize this division by having one set of rules for one and another for the other. This reflects a mindset that accepts as matter of faith that we humans are all not equal. In George Orwell's world there is at least the declaration that we are all equal even though the reality is far different.

If we treat our citizens differently based on religion, then we are on a very slippery slope. The difference between what PAS is proposing and the ugly apartheid of the old South Africa or Nazi's Germany is merely a matter of degree.

A passage in the Quran eloquently states that Allah could have made us all believers if that was His intent. Our diversity is His grand design. As true believers we have to accept this; Islam after all means submission to the will of Allah.

Diversity must necessarily mean differences. When I read the Quran I hear the recurring refrain of "command good and forbid evil." To the likes of Osama bin Ladin it reads, "Kill the infidels!" Of course even a simple literary tale like Hikayat Hang Tuah can have radically different interpretations, what more the Quran. As I believe the Quran is meant to engender goodwill, I prefer my interpretation. Yet the question remains: How do we deal with our differences?

The Neanderthal mode would be to eliminate those who disagree with us in the pretext of cleansing the faith. The Christians had their inquisitions; the Taliban, their fanatical quest for "pristine" Islam. It has never worked and never will, but that has not prevented some from trying and repeating the mistakes and horrors of the past. Unfortunately like the poor, these slow learners will always be with us.

My already negative judgment of PAS leaders is based on their performance in running the states currently under their control. They expose their utter lack of competence in modern management; those states remain the most backward. Their Islamic state document merely reinforces my conviction.

Embarrassingly unprepared

Whether PAS members would end up in heaven, only Allah knows. Tok Guru Nik Aziz however would like us to believe that Almighty Allah has already confirmed their reservations in that place. It is a reflection of Nik Aziz's guile and his followers' gullibility that they readily believe such nonsense.

For a party that had as its reason for being the establishment of an Islamic state, it was embarrassingly unprepared to say clearly what it is it is trying to achieve. Indeed this document was produced and with great difficulty only after the party was challenged a year ago by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Some of the statements in this blueprint are unbelievably simplistic and nave. They might sell in Ulu Kelantan and Kemaman, but not in the rest of the country. For example, PAS would have a National Cultural Policy and National Tourism in line with Islam. Presumably only nasheed singers on television and of course no swimsuits on the beaches!

To its credit, PAS reaffirms the rights and freedom enshrined under the United Nations Declarations of Human Rights. Those rights would "be enjoined and protected," but only if they do not contravene the Shari'ah. Curiously PAS is silent on where those potential conflicts could be. To me, the UN's Declaration is the essence of Islam.

Most alarming is when PAS states it "accepts democracy as the methodology through which it should realize the ambition, vision and mission of its political struggle." Presumably once PAS establishes its Islamic state, democracy and its institutions would become superfluous. Scary thought.

It is heartening that PAS accepts parliament as the shura, or consultative council. It goes further to declare that we should obey leaders only in so far as they follow the laws of Allah, and that we should overthrow them when they do not. Left unstated is who is to make that decision. The courts? Ulamas who are not elected and therefore not answerable to the people? Tok Guru Nik Aziz or some other Islamic Pope wannabe?

Crafted by mere mortals

The mantra among PAS leaders and other Islamists is that the Shari'ah is God's law. It is divine and therefore perfect, superceding laws created by mere mortals. These Islamists conveniently forget that the Shari'ah, though based on the Quran and sunnah, was also crafted by mere mortals. To ascribe to it the perfection and infallibility of the Quran means ascribing the very same divine qualities to those mortals a blasphemous assumption.

I am pleased that PAS reaffirms the sanctity of private property rights and the rights of individuals to pursue private businesses the essence of free enterprise. I have long believed that capitalism is very much in the Islamic tradition.

This "monumental document" addresses none of the pressing issues facing Malaysians, Malays in particular; for example, how to make us competitive. The text, in large print, is only 37 pages long, with the first 10 taken up by many blank pages and the obligatory title and religious quotations. The useless preface by Hadi Awang and the rambling preamble took away another 6. After allowing for the summary and numerous quotations from the Quran and hadith in the main body, that leaves only a few pages for the actual meat. No surprise then that this is essentially a list of statements reaffirming the virtues of the Islamic version of apple pie and motherhood.

This is not a serious policy document rather an inelegant and poorly articulated wish list. I would dismiss it as a cheap election ploy, except that the man who introduced it, Hadi Awang, had admitted as much.