KUALA LUMPUR, July 3 — PAS today challenged Umno to answer the MCA president’s attack on the suggestion by one of its state lawmakers that hudud be implemented for non-Muslims in Johor.

A Johor Umno state assemblyman had recently proposed the Islamic penal law be implemented to cover all residents in the state, a move that drew fire from MCA, one of the component parties in the Barisan National coalition.

“The Johor Umno Adun must have run out of ideas and out of his mind 2 propose hudud in Johor including non-Muslims. MCA will definitely object it,” Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek said on micro-blogging site Twitter on Sunday.

“I ask the prime minister to defend his Adun,” said Datuk Mahfuz Omar (picture), the vice-president of PAS, in reference to Datuk Seri Najib Razak who is also the president of Umno.

“What is Umno’s attitude to Chua Soi Lek who claims that the Umno proposal is a proposal (by a) person out of his mind?”

Umno’s Kemelah state assemblyman Ayub Rahmat was quoted by online news portal Malaysiakini as saying he wished to see Johor become the first state to implement “true hudud law”, which he claimed would differ from PAS’ interpretation.

Ayub said his interpretation of hudud law would be non-discriminatory as the adherents of all religions would be subjected to it in Johor.

“The Syariah Criminal Code (II) 1993 State of Kelantan does not reflect the true requirements of Islam. It creates discrimination in terms of execution (among Muslims and non-Muslims),” Ayub had said.

The Umno assemblyman, who made the proposal at the June 20 sitting of the Johor state assembly, said his proposal would help non-Muslims understand the implementation of hudud law, while accusing PAS of failing to do so.

Hudud remains a contentious issue in multicultural and multi-religious Malaysia. It is often used as fodder by political parties either to engender support or attack ideological opponents.