Dr. Ng Kam Weng of Kairos Research Centre has said that kharaj in the original form was a land tax levied on non-Muslims and was imposed in the context of Muslim as the conqueror and non-Muslim as the conquered.
He said non-Muslims paid a tax to use the land which they did not own.
He said that kharaj was introduced in the early days of Islam as a land tax paid by non-Muslims whose lands had been conquered by Muslims and was practised during the Umayyad Dynasty to encourage conversion to Islam.
Dr. Ng said: "In a plural society like ours, we cannot be going back to classic law representing the relationship between conqueror and conquered.
"Is it symbolic of the original ideology of ownership? Is trying to impose kharaj indicative of Muslim supremacy and Muslim ownership of land?"
Before the PAS Terengganu introduce kharaj for non-Muslims, there should be the fullest consultation with non-Muslims both in Terengganu and the rest of Malaysia, where Malaysians who have grave reservations and objections on the implications of kharaj like Dr. Ng Kam Weng are allowed to have their say.
(7/12/99)