PAS president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang’s latest claim — that “the most wicked of Muslims, the worst of Muslims governing the country, are not as oppressive as non-Muslims” — is not merely wrong. It is a deliberate, poisonous 3R statement dressed up as religious wisdom.
It is the kind of statement that would destroy a non-Muslim politician overnight.
Imagine, for one second, a non-Muslim leader standing on a stage and declaring: “Even the most wicked non-Muslim leaders are less oppressive than Muslims.”
Police reports would be filed within minutes. Politicians from every side would scream for blood. The individual would be dragged in, charged under sedition and 3R laws, and held up as proof of dangerous extremism.
Yet when Hadi says the exact same thing in reverse, the silence is deafening. The double standard is not just obvious — it is grotesque.
Watching PAS under Hadi makes many Malaysians long for the late Tuan Guru Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat. Tok Guru led with quiet strength, compassion and genuine unity. He earned respect across racial and religious lines without needing to insult anyone.
Hadi has dragged the party in the opposite direction — into fear, division, and toxic identity politics. Where Nik Aziz built bridges, Hadi burns them for applause.
Even Ibn Taymiyyah, the classical scholar that Islamist movements love to quote, destroys Hadi’s argument in a single line from Al-Hisbah:
“Allah upholds a just state even if it is led by unbelievers, but Allah will not allow an oppressive state to remain even if it is led by Muslims. The world will endure with justice and unbelief, but it will not endure with oppression and Islam.”
Islam does not teach Muslims to soft-pedal the crimes of their own. It commands them to reject zulm — oppression — no matter who commits it.
Minimising the sins of a corrupt, wicked Muslim leader is not piety. It is betrayal of the Quran’s clear instruction to stand for justice even against one’s own people.
When the early Muslims were being tortured by their own relatives in Mecca, the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) did not tell them to stay and suffer under “Muslim” oppressors. He sent them to Abyssinia — a Christian kingdom ruled by the Negus, a non-Muslim whom the Prophet praised as a just ruler under whom no one was wronged.
Look at the modern world.
Over 20 million Muslims have voted with their feet. They left Muslim-majority countries and built their lives in Europe and North America. Millions more continue to flee war, corruption and authoritarianism in Muslim-led states to seek safety, rule of law and actual religious freedom under non-Muslim governments.
The numbers do not lie. People do not run towards oppression.
Even inside Malaysia the hypocrisy is measurable.
Under a non-Muslim Chief Minister, Penang pays its KAFA teachers RM1,700 a month. PAS-controlled Terengganu and Kelantan pay only RM1,100. Kedah manages around RM1,200.
Penang also allocates over RM25 million a year for mosques. The PAS states lag far behind.
The data is public. The contrast is embarrassing.
Hadi wants Malaysians to believe that religious identity automatically makes a leader less oppressive. The record shows the opposite: justice is not determined by the faith of the ruler, but by whether the ruler actually practises justice.
Malaysians are exhausted by politicians who use religion as a shield for incompetence and corruption while poisoning the country against its own citizens.
True Islamic leadership is measured by integrity, fairness and results — not by who can shout the loudest about non-Muslims being worse.
The authorities claim to treat 3R cases seriously. Then prove it.
Investigate Hadi Awang under the same laws that would be used against anyone else who made this statement.
Anything less is selective enforcement and institutional cowardice.
