Malaysia's main opposition party promised an Islamic...

Malaysia's main opposition party promised an Islamic state for the multi-racial country but left vague its stance on strict religious laws and capital punishment for majority Muslim Malays.
Islamic laws can mean the death penalty for adulterers and apostates and the severing of limbs for thieves, a penal code the party proposed in the past for Muslims. Fadzil Noor, leader of the main opposition Parti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS), told party loyalists the country's constitution would need to be amended to make Islamic sharia laws supreme for Muslims.
"As a party which bases its struggle on Islam, PAS takes the responsibility to put forward this concept of Islamic government as a model," he told the fundamentalist party's annual assembly in northeastern Kelantan state. The criminal element of sharia law, known as hudud law, bars women and non-Muslims as legal witnesses and condemns rape victims found pregnant as guilty of illicit sex, an offence punishable by 100 lashes.
While constitutionally Malaysia is not an Islamic state, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said in 2001 the country of 23 million people was in reality already Islamic because it fulfils fundamental teachings of Islam such as providing education and welfare for all its citizens. But PAS leaders reject that, saying the country falls short of the true teachings of Islam based on the holy Koran.
The party holds 27 of Malaysia's 193 federal parliament seats and controls the assemblies in two of its 13 states. A general election is due by 2004, but Mahathir is expected to call a poll in 18 months to capitalise on suspicion towards the Islamic opposition since the September 11 attacks on the United States.