KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 18 — Complaints of human rights abuses against Malaysia are not genuine, and are part of a masquerade to push the lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender (LBGT) agenda to undermine Islam, the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) said in its Friday sermon today.
It also claimed there was a global liberal conspiracy to challenged the position of Islam in Malaysia and local rights groups were acting as its agents, pointing particularly towards Comango, a coalition of NGOs campaigning for LGBT rights.
“As of recently, there is a concerted plan undertaken by certain quarters on the name of human rights. It is undermining and challenging the principles of freedom allowed in Islam.
“It is not only moved by quarters in the country, but, with the advent of new media, these groups are getting the support of international liberal groups,” read the sermon.
It pointed out that the groups like Seksualiti Merdeka, which is a part of Comango, are now planning to use next week’s human rights convention in Geneva to submit reports of supposed human rights abuses in Malaysia.
“Among the demands are freedom of religion, recognition to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer person, questioning certain provisions in the Islamic family law that they claimed discriminate Muslim women, discrimination against syiah followers and protest against the ban of publications that violates syarak laws”.
Jakim said this would ultimately threaten Islam’s position as the country’s official religion.
“The action and behaviour of those who are making the demands will soon be made the foundation for local human rights NGOs to capitalise and continue to confuse people and this can destroy the harmony and undermine Islam’s special position,” it said.
Yesterday Comango dismissed accusations by a Muslim group, identified only as “Muslim NGOs”, that it was promoting unnatural sex and threatening the position of Islam in its human rights report.
“Our proposals to the Human Rights Council are within the framework of the Universal Declarations of Human Rights,” Comango spokesman Honey Tan Lay Ean told a media briefing on the forthcoming Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in Geneva.
The report, submitted to the UPR in March, would be a part of the council’s review of Malaysia’s human rights standing following Putrajaya’s pledge to improve civil liberties in 2009.
Tan alleged Putrajaya had not been honest about its human rights record after reading the government’s submission to the UPR council.
She cited the controversial amendments to the Prevention of Crime Act (PCA), which would restore the government’s power for arbitrary detention, as an example.
“They repealed the Internal Security Act and Emergency Ordinance that saw the abolition of detention without trial. But it resurfaced in the form of the PCA,” she said.
