Malaysian Islamic Party

The post-World War II period, while Malaya was still under British colonial rule, saw the emergence of the country's first formal Islamic political movements. The Malay Nationalist Party, a left-wing nationalist organisation, was formed in 1945 and led by Burhanuddin al-Helmy, who would later become the president of PAS. Out of the MNP arose the Pas Malayan Supreme Islamic Council in 1947, and MATA in turn formed the party Hizbul Muslimin (Muslim People's Party of Malaya) in 1948. The central aim of Hizbul Muslimin was the establishment of an independent Malaya as an Islamic state.[3] However, the party did not live beyond 1948. The Malayan Emergency of that year, while a British–Communist dispute, saw the colonial administration arrest a number of the party's leaders, and the nascent group disbanded. Nevertheless, the party served as a forerunner to PAS, supplying both the ideology upon which PAS was formed and some of PAS's key leaders in its early years.[4]

PAS was founded on 24 November 1951, as the Persatuan Islam Se-Malaya (Malayan Islamic Organisation). The formation of the party was the culmination of a growing desire among Muslim clerics within the United Malays National Organisation to formalise a discrete Islamic political organisation. However, the lines between UMNO and the new party were initially blurred. PAS allowed dual membership of both parties, and many of its early senior leaders were also UMNO members. The party's first president was Ahmad Fuad Hassan, an UMNO cleric. He lasted in the position only until 1953, when he fell out of favour with the party, which was now developing a more distinct identity, and returned to the UMNO fold. Fuad's departure coincided with the end of dual membership.[5] The party turned to Abbas Alias, a Western-educated medical doctor, as its second president, although he did not play an active role in the party and was little more than a nominal figurehead.[6]

The party's first electoral test was the pre-independence 1955 election to the Federal Legislative Council, the body that preceded the national parliament. 52 single-member seats were up for election; PAS fielded 11 candidates. Hampered by a lack of funds and party organisation, PAS succeeded in having only one candidate elected: Ahmad Tuan Hussein, a teacher at an Islamic school in Kerian, Perak. He was the only opposition member of the council; the other 51 seats were won by members of the Alliance coalition between UMNO, the Malaysian Chinese Association and the Malaysian Indian Congress. PAS' performance in the election weakened its hand in negotiations with the British over the terms of Malayan independence. Its advocacy for the protection of Malay and Muslim rights, including the recognition of Islam as the country's official religion, was ignored. Alias stepped down from the presidency in 1956, handing it voluntarily to the radical nationalist Burhanuddin al-Helmy.[7] This change exemplified a broader trend among PAS's leadership in the late 1950s: the party's upper echelons gradually became filled with nationalists and long-time UMNO opponents, replacing the UMNO clerics who had initially led the party.[8]

Burhanuddin al-Helmy, a prominent anti-colonialist, steered PAS in a socialist and nationalist direction and set about strengthening the party's internal structure and geographic reach. In the 1959 election, Malaya's first since independence, the party's focus on rural constituencies, especially in the north, paid off. Thirteen PAS candidates were elected to the 104-member House of Representatives, and the party took control of the legislative assemblies of the northern states of Kelantan and Terengganu.[9][10]

However, Burhanuddin's leftist Pas-Islamism, under which PAS sought greater ties between the Muslim peoples of Malaya and the Indonesian archipelago, soon led the party into a wedge. The Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation of 1963–66 turned popular Malayan opinion against Indonesia. PAS's attacks on Tunku Abdul Rahman's Alliance government for seeking Western assistance during the confrontation, and the party's continued support for Southeast Asian PAS-Islamism, led to a loss of support in the 1964 election. The party's parliamentary cohort was reduced to nine.[11] The party became further marginalised the following year, when Burhanuddin was detained without trial under the Internal Security Act on allegations that he had collaborated with Indonesia.[12]

Political circumstances in the country had changed by the 1969 election. The Konfrontasi had ended, Burhanuddin had been released from custody although was too ill to campaign actively, and the Alliance coalition was suffering from internal division as well as unpopularity. PAS' vote rose to over 20 percent of the national electorate, netting the party 12 seats in Parliament.[13] However, the parliament would not convene until 1971 as the 13 May race riots resulted in the declaration of a state of emergency. The country would be run by a National Operations Council for the following two years. In the meantime, Burhanuddin died in October 1969 and was replaced as PAS' president by his deputy, Asri Muda.[14]

Asri came to the presidency having been PAS's de facto leader during Burhanuddin's long illness.[15] But this did not mean a seamless transition for the party. While Burhanuddin had been sympathetic to left-wing causes and parties in Malaysia, Asri was first and foremost a Malay nationalist, and was hostile to leftist politics. One of his first acts as President of PAS was to part ways with the party's opposition allies on the left, such as the Malaysian People's Party. Ideologically, Asri's presidency would see the party shift markedly away from the Pas-Islamism of Burhanuddin. The party became principally concerned with the protection and advancement of the rights of ethnic Malays.[16] The party's activities also became solely focused on party politics, as reflected in the change of its name in 1971 from the "Persatuan Islam Se-Malaysia" (Pan-Malaysian Islamic Association) to the "Parti Islam Se-Malaysia" (Pas-Malaysian Islamic Party).[17]

However, Asri's most radical change was still to come. In January 1972, he announced that PAS would be joining the Alliance Party coalition (which would soon rebrand itself as Barisan Nasional) as a junior partner to its main rival UMNO. The move was controversial within PAS, and some of its members and senior leaders either left the party or were purged by Asri. Asri's principal justification for joining UMNO in a coalition government was that after the 1969 race riots, Malay unity was paramount, and that this required a partnership between the country's two ethnic-Malay political parties. Asri himself was given a ministerial position in the cabinet of prime minister Abdul Razak Hussein.[18]

The 1974 election saw PAS competing under the Barisan Nasional banner for the first and only time. The party won 14 parliamentary seats to UMNO's 62, cementing PAS's position as the junior of the coalition partners. PAS also found itself governing in coalition in Kelantan, which it had previously governed in its own right. PAS's vote in its northern strongholds was weakened by a loss of support to both its former opposition allies and renegade PAS candidates running on anti-Barisan Nasional tickets.[19] Ultimately, it was Kelantan, Asri's home state and the base of political power, that would trigger the downfall of the UMNO–PAS partnership. After a conflict between Asri and the UMNO-favoured chief minister of the state, Mohamed Nasir, over investigations that Nasir initiated into Asri's financial dealings, Asri mobilised the PAS members of the Kelantan State Legislative Assembly to move a no-confidence motion against Nasir. The UMNO assemblymen staged a walk-out, abandoning Asri, driving an irreparable wedge through the coalition and causing a political crisis in the state. The Prime Minister Hussein Onn declared an emergency in the state, allowing the federal government to take control. Asri withdrew PAS from Barisan Nasional in December 1977.[20]

The 1978 election underscored how disastrous PAS's foray into the Barisan Nasional had been. The party was reduced to five parliamentary seats and, in separate state-level elections in Kelantan, was routed by UMNO and the Pas-Malaysian Islamic Front (BERJASA), which Nasir had founded after leaving PAS. The party's fortunes in the Kelantan election were not helped by a ban on public election rallies; while the Barisan Nasional was able to campaign through a compliant mass media, public talks were the principal way in which PAS could reach voters.[21] PAS fared little better in the 1982 election. In the face of a new prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, and the decision of the popular Islamist youth leader Anwar Ibrahim to join UMNO instead of PAS, the party was unable to improve on its five parliamentary seats and failed to regain government in Kelantan. Meanwhile, the 1978 to 1982 period coincided with the rise of a new generation of leaders within the party, including foreign-educated Muslim clerics (or "ulama") such as Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat and Abdul Hadi Awang. This group sought to reorient PAS as an Islamist party and were fundamentally hostile to UMNO, whose Malay nationalist focus they saw to be at the expense of Islam.[22] In 1980 the group succeeded in electing Yusof Rawa to the deputy presidency of the party, ousting the Asri loyalist Abu Bakar Omar.[23] By the time of PAS's 1982 assembly, it was clear to Asri that the ulama faction had the numbers to defeat him. He resigned on the floor of the assembly, and subsequently attacked the party through the media, leading to his expulsion and the formation of splinter party, Parti Hizbul Muslimin Malaysia (HAMIM) by Asri in 1983.[24] The following year, in 1983, Yusof was elevated to the presidency, unopposed.[25]

The ulama who took over PAS in 1982 drew from the 1979 Iranian revolution for inspiration in establishing an Islamic state; Yusof Rawa himself had served as Malaysia's Ambassador to Iran in the years preceding the revolution. Yusof openly rejected the Malay nationalism that characterised both UMNO and PAS under Asri Muda, considering it a narrow and ignorant philosophy that was contrary to the concept of a Muslim ummah.[26] As if to exemplify the shift in the party's ideological outlook under Yusof and his ulama colleagues, the party's new leaders adopted a more conservative and religious form of dress, abandoning Malay and western clothing for traditional Arab religious garb.[27] Politics between UMNO and PAS became increasingly religious in nature. The Barisan Nasional government tried to counter the possible electoral appeal of PAS's Islamisation by creating a number of state-run Islamic institutions, such as the International Islamic University of Malaysia. PAS leaders responded by labelling such initiatives as superficial and hypocritical, UMNO leaders as "infidels", and UMNO as the "party of the devil".[28]

The increasingly divisive rhetoric between UMNO and PAS produced deep divisions in Malay communities, especially in the northern states. Sometimes the divisions became violent, the most infamous example being the 1985 Memali incident, in which the government sanctioned a raid on a village led by the PAS cleric Ibrahim Libya, which left 14 civilians and four policemen dead.[29] It was against this backdrop that the PAS ulama faced their first general election in 1986. The result was a whitewash for the Barisan Nasional coalition. PAS recorded its worst-ever election result, retaining only one seat in Parliament. PAS, in recovering from the defeat, had no choice but to retreat from its hardline Islamism and pursue a moderate course.[30] By 1989, Yusof had become too ill to remain as PAS's president, and was replaced by his deputy, Fadzil Noor, another member of the ulama faction that now dominated the party.[31]

Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat became the Menteri Besar (Chief Minister) of Kelantan in 1990, and remained in the post for 23 years.

While not abandoning PAS's ideological commitment to the establishment of an Islamic state, Fadzil Noor moderated the party's rhetoric. He also set about infusing the party's membership with young urban professionals in an attempt to diversify the leadership ranks beyond religious clerics.[15] The 1990s also saw PAS engage in international Islamist movements. Abdul Hadi Awang became active in a number of international Islamic organisations and delegations, and Islamist parties abroad sent delegations to Malaysia to observe PAS.[32]

The first electoral test of Fadzil's presidency was the 1990 election, which occurred against the backdrop of a split in UMNO out of which the Semangat 46 opposition party was formed. PAS joined Semangat 46 and two other Malay parties in the United Ummah Front ("Angkatan Perpaduan Ummah"), and won seven parliamentary seats. The new coalition swept the Barisan Nasional from power in Kelantan, winning all of its state assembly seats. Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, a cleric who played a leading role in the 1982 takeover of the party, became Kelantan's Chief Minister, and would remain in the position until his retirement in 2013.[33] One of the first acts of the PAS-led government in Kelantan was to seek to introduce hudud, a criminal punishment system for particular Islamic offences. The move was abandoned after it became clear that the law could not be enforced over the objections of the federal government.[34]

PAS retained its seven parliamentary seats and the government of Kelantan in the 1995 election while all other opposition parties lost ground.[35] By the time of the next election in 1999, circumstances external to PAS had changed its fortunes for the better. The 1997 Asian financial crisis split the Barisan Nasional government between supporters of the Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad, and his deputy, Anwar Ibrahim. Mahathir's sacking and subsequent detention without trial of Anwar in 1998 provoked widespread opposition, which PAS capitalised on more than any other opposition party. The party ran a sophisticated campaign for the 1999 election, taking advantage of the internet to bypass restrictions on print publications and managing to woo urban professional voters while retaining its traditional rural support base. For the first time, PAS joined the centre-left and secular Democratic Action Party in the Barisan Alternatif coalition which included the new party Keadilan, which was formed by Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, the wife of the now imprisoned Anwar. The result was PAS's best ever. The party took 27 of 192 parliamentary seats and had landslide state-level victories in Kelantan and Terengganu.[36]

The death of Fadzil Noor in 2002, and his replacement by the conservative cleric Abdul Hadi Awang, coincided with a period of division within the party between its younger and professional leaders, who sought to make PAS's Islamist ideology more appealing to mainstream Malaysia, and its conservative, and generally older, clerics. The party was unable to reconcile the views of the two factions with a coherent definition of the "Islamic state" that the party's platform envisioned.[15] The debate itself caused the DAP to break with the Barisan Alternatif coalition; as a secular party with mainly an ethnic Chinese support base, it could not support the vision of an Islamic state propagated by PAS's conservatives. PAS also found itself losing Malay support following the replacement of Mahathir as Prime Minister with Abdullah Badawi, a popular and moderate Muslim, and post-September 11 fears among the electorate about radical Islam in Southeast Asia.[37] If the 1999 election had been the party's zenith, the 2004 poll was one of the lowest points in its history. In an expanded Parliament, PAS was reduced to seven seats. Abdul Hadi not only lost his parliamentary seat but saw the government he led in Terengganu thrown from office after one term.[38]

The response of PAS to the 2004 election, like its response to the similar 1986 wipeout, was to abandon the hardline image that had contributed to its defeat. By now, the urban professional wing of the party's membership, brought into the party by Fadzil Noor in the 1990s, was ready to take charge. While Abdul Hadi's presidency was not under threat, the moderate faction, known as the "Erdogans" after the moderate Turkish Islamist leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, had its members voted into other key positions in the party's 2005 general assembly.[15][39] PAS was now able to attack Abdullah Badawi's government from both the right and the left: on the one hand, it criticised Abdullah's promotion of Islam Hadhari as a watered-down version of Islam; on the other, it attacked the government for its human rights record and promoted the causes of social and economic justice, including for non-Muslims. The party also capitalised on the growth of the internet and social media in Malaysia to bypass the pro-government mass media.[40]

Ahead of the 2008 election PAS joined the DAP and Anwar Ibrahim's Keadilan, which was now known as People's Justice Party (PKR) in a new coalition, Pakatan Rakyat. The coalition handed the Barisan Nasional its worst-ever election result. Barisan Nasional lost its two-thirds majority in the House of Representatives, disabling it from passing constitutional amendments without opposition support. PAS won 23 seats; the Pakatan Rakyat as a whole won 82. At state level, decades-old Barisan Nasional governments fell in Kedah, Perak and Selangor. PAS now governed Kedah and Kelantan (led respectively by Azizan Abdul Razak and Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat) and supplied the Chief Minister of Perak (Nizar Jamaluddin) in a Pakatan Rakyat coalition government.[41]

PAS's 2009 general assembly saw latent fissures within the party come out into the open. The incumbent deputy president Nasharudin Mat Isa, a Malay nationalist who promoted greater co-operation between PAS and UMNO, was challenged by two moderate candidates.[42] Nasharudin survived with the backing of the conservative ulama faction; his two opponents had split the moderate vote. But at the 2011 assembly, Nasharudin was not so lucky: Mohamad Sabu, a leading moderate close to Anwar Ibrahim, commanded the support of the "Erdogan" wing and toppled him. Sabu's election was a significant defeat for the ulama faction. He was the first non-cleric to serve as the party's deputy president in over 20 years.[43]

The Pakatan Rakyat coalition went into the 2013 election facing Najib Razak, who had replaced Abdullah as Prime Minister in 2009 but failed to improve the government's fortunes, especially among urban voters. PAS made a concerted effort to expand its voter base beyond the northern peninsula states, and campaigned heavily in Johor, where it had never won a parliamentary seat. The election witnessed a significant degree of cross-over ethnic voting: Chinese voters in Malay-majority seats decided in large numbers to support PAS, to maximise the chances of a national Pakatan Rakyat victory. Pakatan Rakyat garnered 50.8 percent of the national popular vote but could not win a majority in parliament.[44] PAS, however, suffered a net loss of two parliamentary seats. This was principally attributable to a swing against the party in Kedah, where the party was removed from state government after one term and lost four parliamentary seats.[45]

When PAS saw its share of seats shrink in the 2013 election, it started to reassert its Islamic agenda.[46] DAP criticised its president Abdul Hadi Awang for pushing a bill on hudud without consulting his opposition partners. This incident led to the DAP announcing in March 2015 that it would no longer work with the PAS leader. The rift worsened after conservatives captured PAS leadership, as progressive leaders were voted out of office in party elections, characterised by the media as an intentional wipe out and purge,[47][48] led to an exodus and the subsequent formation of Parti Amanah Negara by Mohamad Sabu. The party accepted a motion by its conservative ulama wing to sever ties with DAP.[49] In response, DAP's Secretary-General Lim Guan Eng said that the Pakatan Rakyat coalition no longer exists as a result of the violation of the coalition's Common Policy Framework, of which PAS had violated by intentionally severing ties with DAP.[50] The coalition was replaced by Pakatan Harapan, which the newly formed Parti Amanah joined as a founding member.

The party formed Gagasan Sejahtera with Malaysia National Alliance Party (IKATAN) in 2016,[51] with BERJASA joining the coalition the same year. The coalition entered the 2018 Malaysian general election using the PAS logo and contested 158 seats, with PAS contesting 155 of them.[52] The coalition was able to win 18 parliamentary seats as well as wrangle control of the state of Terrenganu from BN, which PAS had last ruled in 2004, in addition to retaining control of Kelantan. However, PAS was the only party to win any seats as both BERJASA and IKATAN remained without representation.

In September 2019, UMNO decided to form a pact with PAS called Muafakat Nasional. Its express purpose was to unite the Malay Muslim communities for electoral purposes.[53] However, this co-operation did not cover the rest of Barisan Nasional, which UMNO was member to, despite calls for a migration to the new alliance.[54][55] Barisan Nasional continued to function as a separate coalition of four parties comprising UMNO, MCA, MIC and PBRS.

During the Tanjung Piai by-election, PAS vice-president Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah stated that PAS would support the candidate nominated by Barisan Nasional,[56] which was reaffirmed by PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang.[57]

On 23 February 2020, PAS held an extraordinary meeting Janda Baik, Pahang together with the UMNO in the lead up to the 2020-21 Malaysian political crisis. PAS President Hadi Awang was among the entourage of then-opposition political leaders as well as members of government that visited the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to discuss the formation of a new government on 23 February.[58]

On 24 February, Mahathir announced his resignation as prime minister, followed by the withdrawal of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (BERSATU) as well as 11 PKR MPs led by Azmin Ali from Pakatan Rakyat's successor coalition, Pakatan Harapan. This led to the collapse of the government as the remaining three parties, the DAP, PKR, and Amanah did not have enough seats for a majority. PAS along with UMNO declared their support for Mahathir to remain as prime minister.

On 25 February, UMNO and PAS revealed that they had withdrawn their prior support for Mahathir to continue as prime minister, and instead called for the dissolution of parliament.[59] It was previously reported that as all political factions voiced their support for Mahathir, he was intent on establishing a "unity government", which the two parties could not agree with.[60][61] Annuar Musa, UMNO's secretary-general, said the basis of negotiations with Mahathir was that UMNO and PAS would lend their support to form an alternative coalition without DAP. Therefore, both PAS and UMNO instead announced their support for a snap election.[62]

On 28 February, PAS then released a statement announcing their support for the BERSATU president, Muhyiddin Yassin to be appointed as the 8th Prime Minister, with every Muafakat Nasional MPs also signing statutory declarations in support of Muhyiddin.[63]

On 29 February, BERSATU President Muhyiddin Yassin and his allies including party leaders from UMNO, PAS, Gabungan Parti Sarawak, Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah, and the Homeland Solidarity Party had an audience with the Agong to discuss the formation of a government.[64][65] He announced that his coalition consisting of BERSATU, UMNO, PAS, PBRS, GPS, and STAR would be called Perikatan Nasional,.[66] and claimed that they had majority support in parliament to elect a Prime Minister and to form a government.[67]

In the Muhyiddin cabinet, which was formed on 10 March 2020, three PAS MPs became were given ministerial positions and five PAS MPs were afforded the position of deputy ministers.

PAS has also maintained close personal and ideological ties with the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.[1] The party's relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood dates back to the 1940s when PAS's founders were exposed to the ideas and teachings of the Muslim Brotherhood while they were studying in Cairo during the 1940s. According to Wan Saiful Wan Jan of the think tank Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs, the Muslim Brotherhood regards PAS as a model for a successful Muslim political party; since PAS has governed the state of Kelantan continually since 1990. PAS representatives are often invited to Muslim Brotherhood speaking engagements overseas. In 2012, PAS President Abdul Hadi Awang spoke alongside Muslim Brotherhood scholar Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi at a speaking event in London.[77] That same year, PAS representatives met with Muslim Brotherhood leaders Sheikh Mahdi Akif and Dr Muhammad Badie in Cairo.[2]

According to Müller, PAS's current generation of leaders, the Ulama Leadership (Kepimpinan Ulama) were also influenced by Muslim Brotherhood ideology while studying in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and India during the 1980s. Muslim Brotherhood–inspired Islamic education methods (tarbiyah) and regular study circles (usrah/halaqah) were systematically introduced while networks were established with Muslim political parties and movements abroad.[78] In April 2014, Awang criticised the governments of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates for designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation.[2] In January 2016, former PAS leader Mujahid Yusof Rawa claimed that the Muslim Brotherhood's influence on PAS was limited to sharing the organisation's views on the role of Islam in society. Rawa also claimed that other local Muslim groups such as Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (ABIM; Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia) and IKRAM were also sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood.[79]

In 2018, following the then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's announcement of the Seventh Mahathir cabinet's decision for the government to "ratify all remaining core UN instruments related to the protection of human rights", including International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) and other five previously unratified conventions at a United Nations General Assembly, UMNO, PAS along with various non-governmental organisations, staged an Anti-ICERD Rally that was held at the Dataran Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur, to protest against the ratifications of the relevant international conventions, due to their perception that these human rights instruments contravene with the special position of the Malays, Bumiputera and Islam within the country; all of which are enshrined within the Malaysian Constitution.[80][81]

In February 2020, PAS President Abdul Hadi Awang, in concert with Bersatu President Muhyiddin Yassin, UMNO leaders Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Ismail Sabri Yaakob and PKR defector members led by Azmin Ali, collectively convened at the Sheraton Petaling Jaya hotel to initiate a change in government, thus causing political instability by depriving the elected Pakatan Harapan government of a majority within the 14th Malaysian Parliament. As a result, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad (along with the Seventh Mahathir cabinet) tendered their resignation.[82][83][84] In March 2020, after the Yang di-Pertuan Agong consulted all members of the 14th Malaysian Parliament, Muhyiddin Yassin was deemed to have the greatest support within Parliament and was selected as the 8th Prime Minister of Malaysia (without an electoral mandate).[85][86]

After the Taliban took over Kabul and established an Islamic theocracy in Afghanistan, PAS international affairs and external relations committee chairman, Muhammad Khalil Abdul Hadi (also the son of the incumbent PAS president), congratulated the Islamist militant group for "successfully achieving victory for their country" on Twitter and Facebook, stating its liberation from Western powers.[87]

The victory and ‘independence’ achieved this time is the result of the efforts of all Afghans in an effort to liberate their homeland which for 20 years has been colonised and invaded without mercy and humanity that almost destroyed Afghanistan.

— Muhammad Khalil Abdul Hadi, PAS international affairs and external relations committee chairman, Harakah

In August 2021, Khalil also added that the Taliban had also become more moderate, spuriously claiming that women's rights (including women's freedom of movement) and the opportunities for women in the workforce were preserved.[88] The unsubstantiated comments were widely condemned by numerous Malaysian social media users, and Muhammad Khalil Abdul Hadi's pro-Taliban posts on Facebook and Twitter were taken down in response.[89][90] (In March 2022, numerous independent news reports indicate that women and girls in Afghanistan were deprived (by decrees from the Taliban) from their ability to work, study or move freely within the country.[91][92][93][94])

In October 2021, the leader of PAS's youth wing, Khairil Nizam Khirudin, proposed closer ties between PAS and the Taliban. He claimed that if China was able build ties with the Taliban, Malaysia should also do so.[95]

In August 2021, PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang alleged that Western media made false accusations against the Taliban in order to advance an Islamophobic agenda, without studying and fully understanding the religion of Islam.[96] He also repeated the Taliban claim, that the Taliban provided broad amnesty to government officials of the toppled Islamic Republic of Afghanistan;[96] this claim was disputed as numerous independent reports with evidence indicated that the Taliban instead conducted enforced disappearances, summary executions and revenge killings against the former government officials.[97][98][99][100] In the same article, Abdul Hadi Awang also alleged that the Taliban undertook a celebratory approach to the diversity of society within a multi-ethnic Afghanistan;[101] this claim was also disputed as numerous evident news reports indicated that the Taliban engaged in the persecution of Hazaras (who numerous Taliban fighters deem as heretical), censorship against journalists and the news media, violence against journalists, arbitrary arrest and detention, political repression.[102][103] Most notably, anyone from a religious minority who was an apostate of Islam, are sentenced to death.[104]

In February 2022, PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang spuriously alleged that various media were anti-Islam and slandered the Taliban, as according to him, the media were making unsubstantiated claims that the Taliban were denying girls and women the right to education.[105] However, in March 2022, numerous evident news reports indicated that the Taliban prevented girls from attending secondary schools throughout the educational system of Afghanistan, generating widespread condemnation amid a global outcry.[106][107][108][109][110]

Sisters in Islam had criticized PAS for unconstitutional Shariah enactment on the recent update of the shariah law of Kelantan penal code including:

• attempting to convert out of Islam
• distortion of Islamic teachings
• disrespecting the month of Ramadan
• destroying houses of worship
• disobeying parents
• tattooing
• undergoing plastic surgery.

This has sparked another controversy where the punishments include a jail term of not more than three years and a fine of up to RM5,000 or six strokes of the can, and that the punishment is categorized under ta'zir (crimes with discretionary punishments) and not under hudud (Islamic Penal Code)[111][112]

PAS had spark another controversy where several of its lawmakers criticizing flight stewardess uniform attire they claimed that it is "too revealing" and added that is if flight stewardess are allowed to wear a hijab. Following those two statement, Sisters in Islam (SIS) said the issue had taken priority over other concerns somehow and they claim that ministerial directives should not interfere with a company's policy which may subject extra rebranding and production costs unless there were issues of safety, health and security. National Union of Flight Attendants Malaysia vice secretary-general S Shashi Kumar also publicly states that this complaint is "nonsensical" where he said the baju kebaya has become a fashion statement in southeast Asia. He said "Royal Brunei Airlines, Singapore Airlines and Garuda Indonesia have adopted the baju kebaya as the uniform for their female flight attendants." Transport minister Anthony Loke had said that “We are aware that this is not a new policy and there is nothing new, but there are no plans to change the existing policies on the dressing of stewards and stewardesses. The image and outfit depend on the airline company.”.He added that “The Ministry has no restriction if Muslim air stewardesses choose to wear attire that are Syariah compliant as long as it fulfills the criteria set by CAAM,”. It looks like PAS leaders lack knowledge of the Malay heritage and criticising their own traditional attire, said Global Human Rights Federation [113][114][115][116]

Following the fame of Malaysia's local liquor company, Timah whiskey after the winning of two silver medals in the Tasting Awards for the International Spirits Challenge 2020 (ISC) as well as the Annual San Francisco World Spirits Competition 2020 (SFWSC), PAS has sparked yet another controversy by urging to the Ismail Sabri Yaakob's Cabinet for the company to be shut down stating that it "to prevent trigger the sensitivity of Muslims in the country" and "to avoid a precedent of new liquor companies emerging". Pas also states that they had to face numerous severe backlash. PAS Deputy President, Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man, said that "We have always been consistent in our stance against alcohol because it is clear that it is haram according to the Quran,".[117][118][119]

The request was denied by Ismail Sabri Yaakob's Cabinet where they had decided to rule against the decision. Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob state that the "cannot cause concern to the people in the context of race and religion". PAS Deputy President, Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man, states "For me, the ' people's anxiety ' can be considered as ' the confusion of the people, especially the Malay-Muslims ' ". Tuan Ibrahim was also reported by the media on October 19 as saying that the brand and logo of Timah whiskey "can be confusing" and asked for it to be reviewed.[120][121]

PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang claims that people who still pushing for english language are stuck in a colonial mindset. He said such Malaysians seemed to be embarrassed to use their national language and placed greater importance on English.“They are behaving like slaves to the former colonial masters despite having been freed from their clutches,” he said in his column in the PAS organ Harakah.“Ignore the delirious voices which are trying to reduce the importance of the Malay language.”Advertisements in shops and the market as well as the names of cities and roads are named in English even though a majority of its target audience do not know English, At the same time, they do not care about whether their audiences consist of Malaysians who do not know English," he added.[122][123][124]

• His Majesty's appointee:
  • Idris Ahmad
  • N Balasubramaniam
  • Khairil Nizam Khirudin
• Kedah:
  • Ahmad Yahya
• Kelantan:
  • Mohd Apandi Mohamad
  • Wan Martina
• Terengganu:
  • Nuridah Mohd Salleh

PAS has 17 members in the House of Representatives.

State	No.	Parliament Constituency	Member	Party
Kedah	P011	Pendang	Awang Hashim		PAS
	P012	Jerai	Sabri Azit		PAS
	P013	Sik	Ahmad Tarmizi Sulaiman		PAS
Kelantan	P019	Tumpat	Che Abdullah Mat Nawi		PAS
	P020	Pengkalan Chepa	Ahmad Marzuk Shaary		PAS
	P021	Kota Bharu	Takiyuddin Hassan		PAS
	P022	Pasir Mas	Ahmad Fadhli Shaari		PAS
	P023	Rantau Panjang	Siti Zailah Mohd Yusoff		PAS
	P024	Kubang Kerian	Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man		PAS
	P025	Bachok	Nik Mohamed Abduh Nik Abdul Aziz		PAS
	P028	Pasir Puteh	Nik Muhammad Zawawi Salleh		PAS
	P031	Kuala Krai	Abdul Latiff Abdul Rahman		PAS
Terengganu	P034	Setiu	Shaharizukirnain Abd. Kadir		PAS
	P036	Kuala Terengganu	Ahmad Amzad Hashim		PAS
	P037	Marang	Abdul Hadi Awang		PAS
	P039	Dungun	Wan Hassan Mohd. Ramli		PAS
	P040	Kemaman	Che Alias Hamid		PAS
Total	Kedah (3), Kelantan (9), Terengganu (5)

PAS has 91 members of state legislative assemblies. It has representatives in every assembly other than those of Negeri Sembilan, Malacca, Sabah and Sarawak. The party holds a majority in the Kelantan and Terengganu State Legislative Assemblies, and supplies all the members of the state's Executive Council (a body akin to a Cabinet), led by Menteri Besar, Ahmad Yakob.[133]

State	No.	State Constituency	Member	Party
Perlis	N13	Guar Sanji	Mohd Ridzuan Hashim		PAS
	N15	Sanglang	Mohd Shukri Ramli		PAS
Kedah	N4	Ayer Hitam	Azhar Ibrahim		PAS
	N7	Kuala Nerang	Mohamad Yusoff Zakaria		PAS
	N8	Pedu	Mohd Radzi Md Amin		PAS
	N9	Bukit Lada	Salim Mahmood		PAS
	N10	Bukit Pinang	Romaini Wan Salim		PAS
	N18	Tokai	Mohd.Hayati Othman		PAS
	N20	Sungai Limau	Mohd.Azam Abd.Samat		PAS
	N23	Belantek	Mad Isa Shafie		PAS
	N24	Jeneri	Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor		PAS
	N26	Tanjong Dawai	Hanif Ghazali		PAS
	N27	Pantai Merdeka	Ahmad Fadzli Hashim		PAS
	N30	Bayu	Abd Nasir Idris		PAS
	N31	Kupang	Najmi Ahmad		PAS
	N32	Kuala Ketil	Mansor Zakaria		PAS
	N33	Merbau Pulas	Siti Aishah Ghazali		PAS
Kelantan	N1	Pengkalan Kubor	Wan Roslan Wan Mamat		PAS
	N2	Kelaboran	Mohd Adenan Hassan		PAS
	N3	Pasir Pekan	Ahmad Yakob		PAS
	N4	Wakaf Bharu	Mohd Rusli Abdullah		PAS
	N5	Kijang	Izani Husin		PAS
	N6	Chempaka	Ahmad Fathan Mahmood		PAS
	N7	Panchor	Nik Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah		PAS
	N8	Tanjong Mas	Rohani Ibrahim		PAS
	N9	Kota Lama	Anuar Tan Abdullah @ Tan Teng Loon		PAS
	N10	Bunut Payong	Ramli Mamat		PAS
	N11	Tendong	Rozi Muhamad		PAS
	N12	Pengkalan Pasir	Hanifa Ahmad		PAS
	N13	Meranti	Mohd Nassruddin Daud		PAS
	N14	Chetok	Zuraidin Abdullah		PAS
	N15	Gual Periok	Mohamad Awang		PAS
	N16	Apam Putra	Abdul Rasul Mohamed		PAS
	N17	Salor	Saiful Adli Abu Bakar		PAS
	N18	Pasir Tumboh	Abd Rahman Yunus		PAS
	N19	Demit	Mumtaz Md Nawi		PAS
	N20	Tawang	Hassan Mahmood		PAS
	N21	Pantai Irama	Mohd Huzaimy Che Husin		PAS
	N22	Jelawat	Abdul Azziz Kadir		PAS
	N24	Kadok	Azami Mohd Nor		PAS
	N26	Bukit Panau	Abd Fattah Mahmood		PAS
	N28	Kemahang	Md Anizam Ab Rahman		PAS
	N29	Selinsing	Tuan Mohd Sharipudin Tuan Ismail		PAS
	N30	Limbongan	Mohd Nazlan Mohamed Hasbullah		PAS
	N31	Semerak	Wan Hassan Wan Ibrahim		PAS
	N32	Gaal	Mohd Rodzi Ja’afar		PAS
	N33	Pulai Chondong	Azhar Salleh		PAS
	N34	Temangan	Mohamed Fazli Hassan		PAS
	N35	Kemuning	Mohd Roseli Ismail		PAS
	N39	Mengkebang	Muhammad Mat Sulaiman		PAS
	N40	Guchil	Hilmi Abdullah		PAS
	N41	Manek Urai	Mohd Fauzi Abdullah		PAS
	N42	Dabong	Ku Mohd Zaki Ku Hussien		PAS
Terengganu	N2	Kota Putera	Mohd Nurkhuzaini Ab Rahman		PAS
	N5	Jabi	Azman Ibrahim		PAS
	N9	Tepuh	Hishamuddin Abdul Karim		PAS
	N10	Buloh Gading	Ridzuan Hashim		PAS
	N12	Bukit Tunggal	Alias Razak		PAS
	N13	Wakaf Mempelam	Wan Sukairi Wan Abdullah		PAS
	N14	Bandar	Ahmad Shah Muhamed		PAS
	N15	Ladang	Tengku Hassan Tengku Omar		PAS
	N16	Batu Buruk	Muhammad Khalil Abdul Hadi		PAS
	N17	Alur Limbat	Ariffin Deraman		PAS
	N18	Bukit Payung	Mohd Nor Hamzah		PAS
	N19	Ru Rendang	Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar		PAS
	N20	Pengkalan Berangan	Sulaiman Sulong		PAS
	N22	Manir	Hilmi Harun		PAS
	N23	Kuala Berang	Mamad Puteh		PAS
	N24	Ajil	Maliaman Kassim		PAS
	N26	Rantau Abang	Alias Harun		PAS
	N27	Sura	Wan Hapandi Wan Nik		PAS
	N28	Paka	Satiful Bahri Mamat		PAS
	N29	Kemasik	Saiful Azmi Suhaili		PAS
	N31	Cukai	Hanifah Mat		PAS
	N32	Air Putih	Ab Razak Ibrahim		PAS
	-	Nominated Member	Zuraida Mohd Noor		PAS
Penang	N1	Penaga	Mohd Yusni Mat Piah		PAS
Perak	N5	Selama	Mohd Akmal Kamaruddin		PAS
	N6	Kubu Gajah	Khalil Yahaya		PAS
	N11	Gunong Semaggol	Razman Zakaria		PAS
Pahang	N9	Tahan	Mohd Zakhwan Ahmad Badarddin		PAS
	N10	Damak	Zuridan Mohd Daud		PAS
	N12	Beserah	Andansura Rabu		PAS
	N15	Tanjung Lumpur	Rosli Abdul Jabar		PAS
	N19	Panching	Mohd Tarmizi Yahaya		PAS
	N24	Luit	Mohd Soffian Abd Jalil		PAS
	N26	Chenor	Mujibur Rahman Ishak		PAS
	N29	Jengka	Shahril Azman Abd Halim		PAS
Selangor	N51	Sijangkang	Ahmad Yunus Hairi		PAS
Johor	N15	Maharani	Abdul Aziz Talib		PAS
Sabah	-	Nominated Member	Aliakbar Gunsalan		PAS
Total	Perlis (2), Kedah (15), Kelantan (36), Terengganu (23), Penang (1), Perak (3), Pahang (8), Selangor (1), Johor (1), Sabah (1)

• Daniels, Timothy P. (2005). Building Cultural Nationalism in Malaysia: Identity, Representation, and Citizenship. Psychology Press. ISBN 0415949718.
• Farish A. Noor (2012). "Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS)". The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought. Princeton University Press. pp. 408–409. ISBN 978-1400838554.
• Farish A. Noor (2014). The Malaysian Islamic Party 1951-2013: Islamism in a Mottled Nation. Amsterdam University Press. ISBN 9789089645760.
• Function, John (2006). "The Malay Electorate in 2004: Reversing the Result". In Swee-Hock, Saw; Kesavapany, K. (eds.). Malaysia: Recent Trends and Challenges. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. pp. 132–156. ISBN 9812303391.
• Funston, N. J. (1976). "The Origins of Parti Islam Se Malaysia". Journal of Southeast Asian Studies. 7 (1): 58–73. doi:10.1017/s0022463400010262. ISSN 0022-4634. S2CID 155087515.
• Hooker, Virginia; Norani Othman (2003). Malaysia: Islam, Society and Politics. ISEAS series on Islam. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. ISBN 9812301615.
• Liew Chin Tong (2007). "Pas Leadership: New Faces and Old Constraints". Southeast Asian Affairs. 2007 (1): 201–213. doi:10.1355/SEAA07J. ISSN 0377-5437.
• Liow, Joseph Chinyong (2009). Piety and Politics: Islamism in Contemporary Malaysia. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195377088.
• Mueller, Dominik M. (2014). Islam, Politics and Youth in Malaysia: The Pop-Islamist Reinvention of PAS. Routledge Contemporary Southeast Asia Series. Routledge. ISBN 978-1317912989.
• Riddell, Peter G. (2005). "Islamization and Partial Shari'a in Malaysia". In Marshall, Paul (ed.). Radical Islam's Rules: The Worldwide Spread of Extreme Shari'a Law. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. pp. 135–160. ISBN 1461686903.
• Stark, Jan (2004). "Constructing an Islamic Model in Two Malaysian States: PAS Rule in Kelantan and Terengganu". Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. 19 (1): 51–75. doi:10.1355/sj19-1c. ISSN 0217-9520. S2CID 145124619.
• Sundaram, Jomo Kwame; Ahmad Shabery Cheek (1988). "The Politics of Malaysia's Islamic Resurgence". Third World Quarterly. Taylor & Francis. 10 (2): 843–868. doi:10.1080/01436598808420085.