About 100 Muslim lawyers attended a meeting at the Federal Territory Syariah Court building yesterday to form a group, Peguam Pembela Islam (PPI) or Lawyers in Defence of Islam, to counter what they termed as concerted efforts to attack Islam.

Top on the PPI agenda is to tackle the 'partisan stand' taken by the Bar Council on cases of apostasy from Islam. In the long term, PPI also seeks to counter moves by certain quarters to 'liberalise' the Federal Constitution.

"Cognisant of the recent attacks against the religion of Islam, a group of Muslim lawyers held a meeting today to take action to defend the position of Islam in this country," former Bar president Zainur Zakaria told a press conference held after the three-hour meeting.

"Some quarters have questioned and challenged the position and status of Islam in this country by using the argument that the human rights of individuals is higher than Islam," he added.

Zainur (left) heads the pro tem PPI committee that includes Kamar Ainiah Kamaruzaman, Zulkifli Nordin, Shamsuriah Sulayman, Zaiton Othman, Mohd Razi, and 10 other senior civil and syariah lawyers.

At a Federal Court hearing on the appeal of Christian convert Lina Joy, the Bar Council, for which lawyer Malik Imtiaz Sarwar held a watching brief, was questioned on its 'partisan stand' on the Lina Joy case.

To strengthen Islam

In an earlier proceeding, Malik had submitted that Article 11 of the constitution pertaining to religious freedom allowed Joy to declare the religion of her choice without being certified to do so by the Islamic religious authorities.

Zulkifli, representing the Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia, argued that the Bar did not have the mandate to assert its position either for or against the case before the court.

Zulkifli also contested that Malik's submission was not representative of the Bar's 4,000 Muslim members.

Bar Council president Yeo Yang Poh later came out to express the Council's full support of the 'partisan stand' as stated by Malik.

At yesterday's meeting, PPI committee members said a resolution on the matter has acquired the endorsement of more than 50 Muslim laywers and will be sent to the Bar Council very soon.

During the meeting, which also saw the participation of several Muslim non-governmental organisations, Zulkilfli said that Muslim lawyers should seek to strengthen Islam within the framework of the Federal Constitution and laws within the country.

"If (certain groups) want the constitution to be liberalised, we want the constitution to be strengthened to reflect the supremacy of Islam," said Zulkifli.

Zulkifli (left), who decried the non-chalant attitude of many Muslim lawyers and NGOs on the issue, also said that apostasy has far reaching implications for the Muslim community.

Among the implications of allowing Muslims in this country to apostasise, he argued, was religion could become arbitrarily interpreted and practiced in any manner chosen by its adherents.
Persons professing the faith at any point in time could choose to declare their apostasy from the religion in order to escape Islamic legislation, said Zulkifli, referring to proscriptions against adultery, fornication and other matters.

Zulkifli also said religious bodies such as the Department of Islamic Development (Jakim) and the various state departments and councils of Islamic religious affairs would become powerless.

The prerogative of the Malay rulers would also be non-existent as matters of religion provided for by the Federal Constitution would no longer be under the powers of the sultans, he said.

Most importantly, Zulkifli added, Muslims could no longer be assured that their children would abide by the tenets and practice of Islam once the doors to apostasy to those who reached the age of majority were open.

He also said that apostasy also throws into question the constitutional definition of the Malay, which has been based on the practice of Malay customs, the use of the Malay language, and the adherence to the Islamic faith