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Malaysia's Morality Laws Won't Apply to Non-Muslims
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Mustafa
said non-Muslims, even those caught with Muslim partners, would
not face action over their indecent behavior.
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KUALA
LUMPUR, April 20, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) –
Non-Muslims caught kissing and hugging in public will not be punished
under the morality laws, a senior Malaysian government official said on
Thursday, April 20.
"We
will take the Muslim only," Mustafa Bin Abdul Rahman, the
director-general of the influential Islamic Development Department of
Malaysia, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
He
said non-Muslims, even those caught with Muslim partners, would not face
action over their indecent behavior.
A
furor has broken out in Malaysia over its morality laws, envisaging
persecution for people caught in indecent and disorderly behavior.
The
Federal Court has ruled that Kuala Lumpur City Hall had the authority to
enact by-laws to prosecute people for indecent public behavior.
It
gave the magistrate hearing such cases the authority to decide if
hugging and kissing constituted indecent behavior.
Muslim
Malays comprise about 60 percent of Malaysia’s 26 million people,
while ethnic Chinese and Indians - most of them Buddhists, Hindus and
Christians - make up about 35 percent. The rest are indigenous people
and Eurasians.
Only
Muslims
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Ibrahim said the laws are "doing a disservice to the whole Muslim orientation, the moderate Muslim view."
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Abdul
Rahman said unmarried Muslims caught in indecent behavior will be hauled
to religious courts.
"If
there is a report of... a Muslim couple acting immorally in an isolated
place, then the enforcement will go there," he said.
"If
there is evidence the couple is not married and not related then the
couple will be brought to the court under Shari`ah law."
The
official stressed that unmarried Muslim couples were banned under
Islamic teachings from acting "immorally" in secluded places.
Supporters
of a Malaysian opposition party have demonstrated outside Kuala Lumpur's
City Hall to protest the laws.
Former
deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim has rebuked the laws, describing the
religious authorities in Malaysia as "over-zealous".
Ibrahim,
the founder of an Islamic youth organization, said the issue had been
taken "too far".
"It
is doing a disservice to the whole Muslim orientation, the moderate
Muslim view," he said.
The
Housing and Local Government Minister recently warned that a strict
enforcement of the morality laws would have an adverse effect on
tourism, a key foreign currency earner.
Malaysia
offers the image of a model Muslim country, heading towards the status
of developed nation with huge buildings, beautiful cities and a fast
track economy.
Prime
Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi launched on Friday, March 31, an
ambitious development plan for Malaysia to become the first developed
Muslim nation by 2020.
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