After months of being challenged by both the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition and its former ally in the opposition front, the DAP, PAS is finally submitting a memorandum outlining its Islamic state concept to Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

PAS president Fadzil Noor said it would be done by the end of this year, adding that the party's concept of the Islamic state has always been around.

"We only need to arrange the concept into a memorandum to be submitted to the prime minister," he told journalists at the Parliament lobby this afternoon.

Fadzil, who made the announcement while debating the 2002 budget at the Dewan Rakyat, hoped that the government would ensure a fair media coverage on the Islamic state concept once it is unveiled to Mahathir.

The Parliamentary opposition leader said the memorandum was prepared in response to the gauntlet thrown down by Mahathir not long ago asking PAS to spell out its criteria of an Islamic state.

During the debate in Dewan Rakyat today, Fadzil explained briefly that the Islamic state propagated by PAS is as written in the book, Fiqhud Daulah fil Islam by As-Sheikh Yusuf al-Qardhawi.

According to al-Qardhawi, an Islamic state is a civil state (daulah madaniyah) which refers to Islam. Thus, the allegation that an Islamic state is a theocratic state is baseless, Fadzil said.

He added that an Islamic state is founded on Islamic law (syariah) and the constitution, and leans toward Islamic mission (dakwah) and welfare, but not merely for the appropriation of taxes. (jibayah).

Fadzil also reiterated that non-Muslims will not be subjected to syariah laws. Instead, those from other faiths are free to choose the implementation of laws in accordance with their religions.

He stressed that Islamic rule should not be narrowly viewed from the legal perspective, from which the "evil" Western media and Umno/Barisan Nasional painted an Islamic state as a "Hudud state".

"Islamic rule stresses on the approaches of a democratic society which is more sensitive to the issue of justice, poverty, environmental degradation, consumer issues, human rights and others.

"This is the early picture of the Islamic state concept which we would like to present to society. However, a more complete discussion can ensue in other forums," he told the Dewan Rakyat.