CRIME, by conventional definition, is a wrongful act against the state punishable by certain punishment, the objective of which is to safeguard the interest of the general public.
Before the emergence of crimes as public offences, all wrongful acts were considered offences against private interest or individuals remedied through various modes of satisfaction initiated by victims of such wrongful acts.
However, with the strengthening of the power of the state as representative of the will of the general public, the private nature of the wrong acts had begun to shy away.
Now crimes are no other than offences that belong to the public sphere such that individual citizens no longer have active role in the process except as complainants who make reports to the police that certain crimes have been committed.
Other than that, all matters are left to the relevant organs of the state to settle. The personal or individual dimension of crimes is, thereby, considered not relevant.
This approach to crime and criminality has, to a certain degree, made the general public less likely to be involved in crime prevention in a meaningful way.
More often than not, the thinking is that let the police pursue and apprehend the criminals, and let the court punish them for what they deserve, and ours is the right to personal safety.There can be no dispute that crime prevention is crucial to any effort to bring peaceful life to any society. Prevention has always been better than cure.
Although crime cannot be totally eliminated, constant review of ways and methods to combat crime is an integral part of the criminal justice system in any country.
Certainly there are many new, sophisticated ways in which criminals can carry out their wicked deeds that demand sophistication also on the part of the police to tackle them.
The battle against crimes and criminals is not an easy task. Sometimes old methods can, nevertheless, be as useful as the modern ones in confronting criminals.
But the big question has always been which method is more effective?It has been said time and again that Islamic law, being divinely inspired, has its own approach in defining crime and fighting it.
The most striking difference between crime in Islamic perspective and its conventional counterpart is that, according to Islamic law, a crime is an offence against God Almighty, and at the same time considered as religious sin, as opposed to the notion of offence against the state in the conventional sense.
As such, a crime is committed if the act in question involves the breach of what is termed as right of God. In Islam certain rights are considered so significant that they are termed as rights of God Almighty and the relevant punishments for their violation cannot be dropped by any wordly authority for whatever reason.
This refers specifically to what are popularly known as hudud offences. Other offences, however, although they come in the forms of violations of rights of God, yet because their punishments are not specifically provided in the Sharia, they are not considered hudud in the above sense.
This last category whose punishments are left to the discretion of the state authority is better known as takzir offences.
In modern times, efforts have been made by quite a number of Muslim governments to address issues surrounding the application of the Islamic criminal justice system and its roles in combating crimes.
Issues like hudud punishments are always widely discussed and debated.
Many quarters hold the opinion that hudud has no role to play in modern society. While other opinions strongly believe in the effectiveness of such punishments as deterrence, especially because of the ever-increasing crime rate.
In the meantime, many Muslims all over the world have voiced their wishes that solutions to the problem of crime and criminal as propagated by Islam be considered in any move to curb crimes and social evils, for this is not only a rightful demand but, above all, a kind of religious imperative that cannot be compromised.
To shed more light on this matter, Ikim is planning to organise an international seminar on Islamic Criminal Justice, in Johor Baru, from Aug 25 to 27, with the objectives to:
Highlight the salient features of the Islamic approach to the definition of crime and criminology.
Identify the wisdom behind certain Islamic provisions regarding crime, especially in relation to justice to all parties involved.
Hear reports about the implementation of the Islamic criminal justice system in several Muslim states.
Create a forum for exchange of ideas and experiences among parties involved in the administration of the Islamic
criminal justice system.
Examine issues related to the roles that can be played by the Islamic criminal justice system in a multi-racial and multi-religious country like Malaysia.
Among the participants expected are government officers, particularly in law and sharia-related fields, other civil servants, lawyers, community leaders, members of NGOs, academic staff of universities, enforcement officers and law and sharia students. Participation from Asean countries and other interested parties is also expected.
This seminar, which is to be jointly organised by Ikim and the Johor government, is expected to be officiated by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.