Malaysia's Morality Laws Won't Apply to Non-Muslims

Islam On Line
21 April 2006


Malaysia's Morality Laws Won't Apply to Non-Muslims
Fri., Apr. 21, 2006

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

Ibrahim said the laws are "doing a disservice to the whole Muslim
orientation, the moderate Muslim view."

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.