GEORGE TOWN, March 19 — The conviction of a non-Muslim for close proximity in the Shariah Court is a gross abuse of power, Penang Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leaders said today.
They were appalled that an Indonesian Christian woman was arrested, charged and subsequently convicted of close proximity, known as khalwat, under Islamic laws which they stress are enforceable only on Muslims in the country.
“It is extremely wrong to use shariah laws on non-Muslims, there is no basis for this and it constitutes a gross abuse of power,” Bukit Bendera MP Zairil Khir Johari said.
Zairil also said the case is a clear example of moral policing gone awry.
“Moral policing is also not what Islam is all about. Islam at its most fundamental is a religion that promotes freedom of thought and conscience,” he said.
He added that any attempt to suppress Muslims and control them would always elicit the opposite result.
“The Quran itself stressed that no one can be forced or compelled in matters of faith,” he said, referring to al-Baqarah verse 256 in the Quran.
It was not clear why the JAIPP enforcement officers had arrested Halimah and charged her in shariah court but it was believed that they assumed she is a Muslim due to her Malay name.
“Judging people by their names is not something intuitive at all, for example, a Turkish visitor to Malaysia once told me that he is surprised that there are many Muslims in Malaysia named Sofia, whereas in Turkey, it is a name that only Christians would use,” Zairil said.
Zairil was commenting on 42-year-old Halimah’s case where she was arrested by the Penang Islamic Religious Affairs Department (JAIPP) officers in 2011 while she was at work at a reflexology centre.
Halimah, who is a Christian, was convicted of close proximity with a man who is not her husband or relative and she was fined RM3,000 and jailed 14 days.
The shariah court allowed her a stay of execution pending her appeal against the conviction and sentence so she is now out on bail.
State executive councillor Dr Afif Bahardin agreed with Zairil that the shariah court has no jurisdiction to impose Islamic laws on those of other faiths.
“We should go back to the Federal Constitution that clearly upholds freedom, individual rights and liberty so if we are talking about people trying to impose their religious values on those of other faiths, it is against the constitution,” he said.
Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim believed that the Islamic religious authorities in Malaysia are becoming careless and indiscriminate in their overzealous actions against non-Muslims.
He likened this action against a Christian to that of the raid on the Bible Society of Malaysia by the Selangor Islamic Religious Affairs Department early this year.
“Indiscriminate actions such as this are making the already tense inter-racial, inter-religious situation worse,” he said.
Sim stressed that the Islamic religious authorities do not have any authority over non-Muslims and non-Islamic matters even though Islam is the religion of the federation.
“If a non-Muslim commits an offence, bring her to the civil courts so if Halimah broke any law, bring her to the proper forum for justice,” he said.
He said it is unreasonable, illogical and unjust to subject a Christian to Islamic religious laws.
Halimah’s appeal was heard in the shariah high court last year but the high court maintainted the conviction and sentence.
Her lawyer is now filing an application for leave to appeal to the shariah court of appeal, the final avenue for Halimah to appeal her case.
Her lawyer had also submitted documents to prove that Halimah is born a Christian, that she was baptised and her family in Indonesia are all Christians.
Her lawyer, Wan Faridulhadi Mohd Yusoff is hoping for the shariah court of appeal to strike out the case.
