Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe by Email Surprise, surprise, IKIM says it has nothing to do with the proposal to penalise non-muslim partner of khalwat cases. Many people are angry about the idea, and few organisations already made condemning statements.
If one read the statement by IKIM, it says “non-Muslims cannot fundamentally be charged under any provision in Islamic law”, and also that “no such provision in the civil courts”. It also said that the idea was based on comment from one of the participants.
The participant is no less than a syariah court judge who said the proposal is part of the draft submitted to AG office!
Ikim: No such khalwat proposal
Apr 4, 08 2:12pm
Institute of Islamic Understanding (Ikim) said that Tuesday’s report in the Star headlined “Proposal to prosecute non-muslims for khalwat” as entirely erroneous. According to an Ikim statement dated April 3, the seminar it organised in collaboration with the Syariah Judiciary Department was intended to review existing syariah laws and to propose solutions to problems pertaining the syariah system in Malaysia.
Ikim said the news report was not right as no proposal to prosecute non-muslims for khalwat, be it under the syariah or civil court, was ever made.
“The article in the Star which reports that the seminar had proposed that non-Muslims caught committing khalwat with Muslims should also be sentenced accordingly but in the civil courts, is entirely erroneous,” said Ikim director-general Dr Syed Ali Tawfik Al-Attas in the statement.
“No such proposal was made, and therefore if what is reported in the Star as being comments allegedly made by Syariah Court of Appeal Judge (Mohd Asri Abdullah), are also in error,” he added.
“If indeed the learned judge made those statements, we strongly advise that it would behove the judge to be more circumspect in future,” he said.
He added that Ikim held that non-Muslims cannot fundamentally be charged under any provision in Islamic law by virtue of the fact that they do not profess the religion of Islam.
“In addition, to my knowledge, there is no such provision in the civil courts to charge a person for khalwat, and therefore it would be premature to assume that non-Muslims can also be subjected to the charge of khalwat in the civil courts,” he said.
“I am disappointed with the article highlighting comments made by Mohd Asri Abdullah which emphasized the banal, when in reality the more important substantive proposals concerning laws protecting the rights of divorced women and their rights to maintenance were ignore,” said Syed Ali.
Syed Ali also disagreed with the Star article on a proposal “for the establishment of a rehabilitation centre for those convicted of offences related to morals and faith such as prostitution and effeminate men”. “To my knowledge, I have never interpreted being effeminate as an offence,” he said.
SIS opposes “moral policing”
Meanwhile, in a statement yesterday, Sisters in Islam (SIS) reiterated its strong objection to the current practice of moral policing by the state, saying it contravened certain Quranic verses.
“The practice of barging into people’s houses and bedrooms, in particular, clearly violates an individual’s right to privacy and human dignity protected by the Quran.”
SIS said that khalwat raids were never carried out during the prophet Muhammad’s lifetime and it was reported that the second Caliph Sayidina Umar was rebuked for barging into a suspect’s residence.
“Such practice is also not the norm in many Muslim countries,” it added.
“The zealousness of religious officials in ‘promoting good and preventing evil’ has often led to public outrage because those arrested, especially women, were shamed and humiliated.”
Other civil societies groups such as Bar Council, Aliran and Suaram also voiced out their objection to the proposal after it was reported on Tuesday.
The Institute of Islamic Understanding (IKIM) is becoming more and more akin to the Taliban in their perception and implementation of Islam. Now the so-called ulamas with their holier than thou attitude is on a crusade to eradicate moral decadence. When their notion of morality and decadence are focussed on intrusion into the privacy of individuals under the guise of khalwat one need not go far into the future to visualize their inclination towards whatever is right in the fanatical and fundamental world of the Talibans.
Why are the myopic mullah nepoleons in IKIM still focussed on moral policing? What right do they have to interpret Islam in their own narrow and feudal way and expect all practioners of Islam to adhere to their version which is more diviationist than some of the already outlawed ones?
One of the local illuminati has come up with the idea of punishing non-Muslims caught in compromising situations with their Muslim friends. Why can’t he just mind his business and instill his perverted ideas within his family circle?
Leave the non-Muslims alone. You have no right to talk about them and their way of life.
Malaysia is a secular country which allows its citizens to practise religions of choice. Though the constitution recognizes Islam as the official religion, it does not give over-zealous religious officials to persecute and degrade anyone under the guise of moral policing and rehabilitation.
What next? Are they going to legalize honour killing, stoning and amputation as well as the beheading of criminals as punishment?
We are in a civilized world. Let us not revert to barbarianism.