Muslims not yet in power may take sides without endorsing Islam’s enemies, says Hadi

PAS president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang says Muslims not yet in power may take sides without endorsing Islam’s enemies, in a November 14, 2026 commentary on the US midterm elections. — File picture by Hari Anggara.

By Malay Mail

First Published: Saturday, 14 Nov 2026 1:51 PM MYT

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 14 — PAS President Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang has described the US Republicans and Democrats as two faces of the same dollar bill, while telling Muslims who are not yet in power that they may take sides without endorsing those they side with.

In a commentary dated today on the United States’ midterm elections, the Marang MP argued that the outcome of any American vote makes no difference to how Washington treats Islam.

“Although there are two big parties… the truth is that both are bound to the face of a one-dollar bill that carries two different pictures, yet its value remains the same one dollar,” Hadi wrote.

“Whichever party wins the election, their attitude towards Islam remains the same,” he said.

He claimed that both parties sit under the umbrella of “Zionist Jews” whose single struggle is to conquer the world under a Greater Israel as the sole superpower, without offering evidence.

Hadi also alleged that Freemasons and Zionists control the economy and media, and that the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and financial institutions fund election machinery and media “free to lie and deceive”.

On how Muslims should respond, he said they are told not to give their allegiance to major powers and enemies of Islam, except where they are not yet in power.

“In such circumstances, Muslims are permitted to practise taqiyyah without giving their approval,” he said, referring to the concealment of one’s beliefs to protect oneself.

Citing Surah al-Rum and the Islamic principle of bearing the lesser of two harms, Hadi said siding temporarily with the less dangerous enemy is “not running away, but choosing to defeat the bigger enemy first, even though both are enemies of Islam”.

He added that while Muslims are allowed such concessions when weak, abandoning Islamic principles that must be defended with sacrifice and determination is forbidden.

Hadi said the light of Islam has now entered “the biggest and most ferocious colonial country” in the Muslim world’s history, and that Islamophobia has made many people curious about the religion.

“Let the enemy fall in its own internal fight,” he said.

He described Western democracy as one that “demeans religion and worships the dollar” and is “burning itself”, choosing “the foolish, wicked, deceitful or negligent” as national leaders.

Hadi urged Muslims to “take the opportunity” from the freedoms in Western democracy to declare Islam and practise it, and to fight for their rights to religion and worship.

“Never cross the limits set by Allah… never surrender and never act extremely,” he said.

Hadi also cited former US president Abraham Lincoln’s remark that “you can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time”.

He said the truth of Islam would be proven and that liars and deceivers would eventually be exposed.

Hadi has previously courted controversy by likening the confidence and supply agreement between Putrajaya and Opposition MPs to the deception of the Dajjal, the great deceiver whose emergence Islam regards as a sign that Judgement Day is near.