Chapter 3 - Report of the Research and Policy Development Group the judge applied the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women in a creative manner, holding that the action of the defendants in withdrawing or cancelling the plaintiff’s appointment as untrained temporary teachers (Guru Sandaran Tidak Terlatih) was unconstitutional, unlawful and void in the face of Article 8 of the Federal Constitution, which bars discrimination on the ground of, inter alia, gender. Nevertheless, in certain cases, it would be difficult for judges to go beyond the provisions of the Federal Constitution. 6. RTD ON ‘HUMAN RIGHTS AND ISLAM’ On 20 November, the Commission, in collaboration with the International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies Malaysia, organised a closed-door RTD on ‘Human Rights and Islam’ to: (i) Identify pressing domestic human rights issues in Islam; (ii) Provide a platform for a critical appreciation of a broad range of issues relating to human rights in Islam; (iii) Promote open discussion, critical analysis and research on human rights issues from the Islamic perspective; and (iv) Explore appropriate mechanisms to intensify dialogue among stakeholders in the spirit of problem solving, pertaining to issues on human rights in Islam. The discussions touched on several issues. (a) Review of the Scope of Maqasid Professor Hashim Kamali, the founding Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the International Institute of Advance Islamic Studies Malaysia proposed that the scope of maqasid be reviewed from its designated list of five towards an open-ended scale of values such as justice, human dignity and human rights, freedom and peace – all of which find support in the Quran. Maqasid is the sense of goals and purposes of the Syariah and logically should not to be limited to a particular number simply because of the Syariah itself is not limited in that order. In view of the continuing relevance, development and growth through independent reasoning (ijtihad), renewal (tajdid) and reform (islah), the goals and purposes of the Syariah must also remain an evolving chapter of the juristic and civilisational edifice of Islam. (b) Freedom of Religion This issue requires further interpretation of the principles in the Quran and Hadith, in order to solve problems in Malaysia. The Quran is silent on the death penalty for apostasy and the evidence in the Hadith is open to interpretation. Islamic jurists have relied on the Hadith reported by Ibn Abbas in which the Prophet (p.b.u.h) said ‘whoever renounces his religion shall be killed’. 107