[nasional_list] [ppiindia] Islamic law called 'indecently' vague
- From: "Ambon" <sea@xxxxxxxxxx>
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- Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2005 01:15:39 +0100
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http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/GB10Ae01.html
Feb 10, 2005
Islamic law called 'indecently' vague
By Baradan Kuppusamy
KUALA LUMPUR - One recent Saturday night, Sarinah Majid, a 23-year-old
accountant, was dancing the night away with her Chinese boyfriend at Zouks
nightclub - the most happening night spot here in Malaysia's capital city.
Then suddenly the world as she knew it collapsed dramatically around her.
"The music suddenly stopped, the lights came on and dozens of uniformed and
plainclothes Islamic police were crowding the dance floor, shouting,
gesticulating and ordering," said Sarinah, using a pseudonym to avoid legal
complications.
"What happened that night in January was humiliating, inhuman and thoroughly
disgusting ... I felt ashamed to be a Muslim," Sarinah told Inter Press
Service, relating to the shame and agony she and about 100 other Muslim
youths suffered that night.
Police from the Federal Territory's Islamic Department separated Muslims
from non-Muslims. While non-Muslims were told to party on, Muslims were
herded into trucks and taken to the department's head office, where the
youths' particulars were taken. They were held overnight and released the
next day.
They were then ordered to return for counseling sessions with Islamic
clerics to learn the "true" Islam. Some will be prosecuted under Shariah
(Islamic) laws for "indecent behavior".
"They leered, jeered and ogled at us, took photographs of us and thoroughly
humiliated us ... one of us even urinated in her pants out of shock and
fright," Sarinah said.
"That night I became a criminal ... the Islamic police told me I had
committed heinous sins forbidden by Islam," said Sarinah, who studied at top
schools here and in Australia. "I have to appear before a Shariah court next
month and be charged for indecent behavior and punished accordingly.
"I don't know what crime I had committed," she said, spitting out the words
with bitterness. "I feel helpless and completely violated."
Many moderate Muslims in Malaysia are showing the same shock and anger felt
by Sarinah. The incident has sparked a fiery debate focusing on morality,
tolerance and compulsion in Islam and the clash between a secular
constitution that guarantees fundamental rights and freedom of choice and
Islamic Sharia laws that prescribe what a Muslim can and cannot wear and
with whom he or she keeps company and where, and many other things.
The raid at Zouks has shaken moderate Muslims - and their fear and anger are
palpable.
Moderate Muslims had felt comfortable and safe with the election of Prime
Minister Abdullah Badawi and the elevation of his Islam Hadhari, or moderate
Islam, to official status. They felt that the fundamentalist wave that had
gripped the country with the ascendancy of the opposition Parti Islam
seMalaysia (PAS) was defeated and over.
"We were naive to think fundamentalism was done away with when PAS was
defeated at the polls last year and Abdullah announced his Islam Hadhari,"
said a prominent Muslim political analyst who declined to be named for fear
of persecution by fundamentalist opponents.
Last March, in his first election since taking over as prime minister,
Abdullah swept through parliament, with his coalition winning 198 out of the
219 parliamentary seats. The opposition only secured 20 seats, with PAS
seeing its number of seats decline from 27 in 1999 to just seven.
"Fundamentalism and intolerance run very deep in Malay-Muslim society," the
political analyst told IPS. "It is everywhere in the schools, academia,
media, politics and everyday life.
"Muslims have few choices ... our life is regulated and regimented," he
said.
The country's constitution guarantees fundamental freedom for all citizens,
including Muslims. Nonetheless, Muslims are further governed by Sharia laws
that each of the country's 13 states have enacted in the last decade. Within
the capital, the applicable law is the Syariah (Sharia) Criminal Offenses
(Federal Territories) Act of 1997.
Section 19(1) prohibits Muslims from imbibing any intoxicating drink and
Section 19(2) refers generally to the selling of alcohol.
Section 29 is the catch-all killer. It states, "Any person who, contrary to
Islamic Law, acts or behaves in an indecent manner in any public place shall
be guilty of an offense." Under this vague section, Muslims are regularly
arrested for "indecent" attire or behavior such as holding hands with
someone from the opposite sex, an act that is common among non-Muslims.
Muslims charged under Section 29 usually plead guilty and quietly pay a
fine, typically less than RM1,000 (roughly US$263).
But the raid as Zouks was different. This time it took place at a top
nightclub frequented by Muslim youths from influential upper-class families
with connections to powerful politicians. This time it was the cream of
Malay society that was belittled and humiliated by the Islamic police.
Moreover, the law does not specify what constitutes "indecency", which, in
light of the recent raid at Zouks, raises the question: is it an act of
indecency to wear tight jeans or tank tops or dance at a nightclub where
alcohol is served?
Human-rights activist Elizabeth Wong points out that there is nothing in
Sharia law that says a Muslim can't be in a club, cafe, bar, restaurant or
venue that serves alcohol.
"There is nothing that says one can't dance or listen to very loud
mind-numbing music," said Wong, a lawyer and director of HAKAM, a
human-rights organization. "The mere presence of Muslims in the nightclub
does not constitute a criminal offense," she told IPS. "What constitutes
indecent behavior is also highly subjective.
"The problem is not whether the religious authorities did their job in
accordance with procedure. It's the existence of such laws that 'govern'
moral behavior, which violates fundamental liberties," said Wong. "These
laws should never exist in the first place."
(Inter Press Service)
The search for a Malaysian race
(Jan 15, '05)
The march toward a more moderate Islam
(Dec 24, '04)
Muslim edict demanded on Malaysian detention law
(Sep 2, '04)
The many faces of Islam in Malaysia
(Jul 9, '04)
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