BANGI, Feb 16 — Lawyer Aidil Khalid suggested last night that enforcement authorities should not abuse their power or use excessive force, even as they have to arrest transgenders.
Speaking at an anti-LGBT forum last night, the Concerned Lawyers for Justice activist admitted he had wondered why LGBT supporters are fighting so hard to decriminalise the status of the LGBT community.
“It was only when we asked them why they want to change the law so badly that they told us because of the Syariah Criminal Enactment, enforcement officers arresting them abuse their power and sometimes use excessive force.
“Even though what [the LGBT community] are doing is wrong, we cannot close our eyes to the mistakes made by the enforcement authorities,” he said in the forum titled “LGBT: A Chronic Cancer on the Nation”.
He claimed that in Islam those whose “sexual instincts run against the norm” are still free from sin as long as they do not act on their “lust”.
A Human Rights Watch report in 2014 had alleged that Malaysian trans women were stripped naked, sexually molested, beaten up, extorted for money and sexual favours, and publicly humiliated on national television by religious authorities.
His fellow panelist Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia’s associate professor Irwan Mohd Subri also conceded that there are imams, or worship leader, who would not allow transgenders from attending their congregation at the local mosques.
“I’ve spoken to many ‘mak nyah’ who want to learn more about Islam, who want to become closer to Allah but they have been humiliated by religious figures, ustaz (religious teachers) and imams,” he said, using the Malay term used by the community to refer to themselves.
“This is not the way to preach to these people. We first must understand them, understand their needs and respect them. How can we help them if we don’t understand them? How can we bring them back into the fold if we turn them away?” said Irwan.
Irwan is an associate professor with the university’s World Fatwa Management and Research Institute whose specialisation is in fatwa and religious jurisprudence, but insisted he had dealt extensively with the transgender community as a preacher.
He also claimed that people “become transgender” because they were sexually abused by family members as children. Contrary to his claim, transgenders were born with a gender identity that is opposite to their assigned sex at birth.
In Muslim-majority Malaysia, the transgender community continues to face stigma and persecution, with Shariah laws making cross-dressing a religious offence.
