KUALA LUMPUR, March 11 ― Islamophobia occurs in Malaysia when people question hudud and label as discrimination how women are treated in Islam without proper understanding of the religion, the Federal Territories Islamic Department (Jawi) said today.

In its Friday sermon here, the federal agency said that some Malaysians have labelled Islam as “unfair” but failed to look at the tenets of the religion in its entirety.

“For example, they questioned why women needed to cover more parts of their bodies and get smaller percentage of inheritance... it is worse when they labelled this as discrimination,” JAWI said in its sermon which was posted on its website.

“They said this without researching the system and understanding the wisdom behind it,” the sermon added.

Islamophobia is the term used to describe dislike or fear of Muslims and Islam.

Jawi added that some feared Islam as they perceived hudud laws as “primitive” without studying its procedure closely and thought hudud was the only legal means available in Islam. 

This, stressed the federal agency, was why hudud has been misinterpreted as regressive and has led to an increase in Islamophobia here.

In Malaysia, Islamist party PAS has repeatedly tried to implement hudud in Kelantan by seeking to amend the Shariah Court Act (Criminal Jurisdiction) 1965 or Act 355, to give Shariah courts more powers.

The current Act 355 only allows the Shariah courts to mete out punishments limited to RM3,000 fine, five years’ jail and six strokes of caning.