GOMBAK, Jan 19 — PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang today chastised Muslims who view faith as a private non-political matter as deviants, declaring the aim for Islamic political power as integral of the faith.
Hadi made the assertion at a seminar on the party's history here this morning, where he sought to affirm the founding of PAS as divine sanction and a continuation of the “prophetic” tradition.
The Marang MP said any Islamic movement, like his own party, must be viewed as a continuation of the “prophecy”.
“There cannot be an exercise of Islam that is incomplete or imperfect; the religion is all-encompassing,” Hadi said in his opening speech.
“Therefor Muslims who think Islam is not political is deviant.”
Hadi has in the past dispense similar criticism against Muslims and political rivals who oppose the party's push for an Islamic state.
They were especially aimed at those who support secularism, which he labelled as a failed “man-made ideology” inherited from colonial rule.
Today, the PAS president said Islam does not permit for separation of religion from the political sphere.
“One of Islam's key teachings is do no evil, prevent evil. Establishing (Islamic) political rule is the ultimate manifestation of this teaching.
“If it's not political it's not Islam,” he declared.