Insulting Islam. Ive heard this term all my life. It is now heard even louder in Malaysia lately when the anti-Hadith Dr. Kassim Ahmad was arrested by the Federal Territory Islamic Religious Department (JAWI) a couple of days ago. It was reported that Dr. Kassim was charged for 2 offences under the Syariah Criminal Offences Act (SCOA) for allegedly uttering statements that might mislead Muslims and for violating fatwa or acting in contempt of religious authorities. This arrest is clearly an abuse of law to silence dissenting opinions! Dr. Kassim is a frail 81-year old man whose health is failing. He was arrested in Kedah, a northern state hundreds of miles from Kuala Lumpur, brought down to the city overnight and questioned until 3AM. When charged at the Syaria Court yesterday morning, the Prosecutor objected to bail, and wanted Dr. Kassim to remain in detention for one week! So much for justice, compassion and peace... Indeed, the SCOA contains several provisions that are open to arbitrary abuse of power by the religious authority. They violate fundamental principles of democracy and the fundamental liberties as guaranteed by the Federal Constitution! There is now an urgent necessity to call for a repeal the SCOA, in particular those provisions that deny citizens their fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression. While organisation like Sisters in Islam has called for the charges to be dropped and activist like Marina Mahathir had lashed out at the unfair and cruel way Dr Kassim Ahmad was arrested and charged, it is not surprising that the Sunnah Wal Jamaah Association of Malaysia (Aswaja) has shown its support to JAWI for the arrest. Aswaja’s president has reportedly said that the deviant ideology of Dr. Kassim is clearly against the teachings of Islam and is upsetting to the Muslims in the country. Upsetting the Muslims? The stupid and trivial law, the unfair and cruel process, the lack of compassion on the treatment of an elderly citizen - these are the grievances that should upset the Muslims and inspire protests and anger! But alas they are often ignored in favour of ones that can be attributed to the evil West and Israel, however fictitious and spurious the linkages. The primary victims of this phenomenon are in fact Muslims themselves who are left dis-empowered by placing all responsibility elsewhere. The winners are Islamists and Jihadists who continue to wage war against art, culture, women, and vulnerable minorities. Dr. Kassim is now considering to take action against the religious authority for charging him of offences he claimed he did not commit. While that remains to be seen, what is clear, in the words of Marina Mahathir, This law is trivial and stupid... We cannot continue to live in a stupid system like this.” Ive said it before and I will say it again - religion should be kept well away from politics and state. The demand for the abolition of sharia is not an attack on peoples right to religion; it is a defence of human rights. But it is not easy to initiate rational conversation in such a context – ask those who have tried.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Mar 2014 23:07:49 +0000
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