Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi says his ministry is prepared to station Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) officers and personnel at the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) and repurpose them as syariah police.
He said the PDRM already has officers suitable for the task, and that he was only waiting for the Public Service Department (JPA) to create the posts within Jakim.
“Many police personnel have religious backgrounds and some have degrees from local or foreign universities in religious subjects and we are prepared to place our personnel in Jakim,” he told Bernama yesterday.
Zahid said there was no fixed time frame for the police officers to be placed under Jakim’s auspices, and left the process of getting JPA approval to Jakim.
This is a little troubling, following increasingly frequent reports of alleged overreach of authority on the part of state Islamic religious departments. Would having police officers acting as a direct extension of Islamic religious departments encourage them to stick more closely to the letter of the law?
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