Cahaya's Rants

Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno is set to be caned by the syariah court in Malaysia for the crime of drinking beer in public, drinking beer in a hotel bar to be more specific.

The irony to this story is that Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno wants her punishment to be carried out as soon as possible and that it be carried out in public.

Even  though she wants the punishment to be carried out in public, I think the real reason for wanting that is not to deter other Muslims from consuming alcohol but to SHAME the Islamic laws and the court that meted out that punishment.

After all what is drinking beer in a hotel bar compared to the real crimes committed by fellow Malaysian Muslims?  Especially the corruption that is rampant among the ruling elites in the country?

Malaysia prides itself as being a modern and progressive Muslim country but if Kartika’s punishment is not retracted, Malaysia is nothing but another backward and barbaric Muslim country.

In a Malaysiakini report entitled Religious scholar dismisses khalwat proposal for non-Muslims, Syed Ali Tawfik Al-Attas, the head of the Malaysian Institute of Islamic Understanding, is quoted as saying “In Islam it says to you yours to us ours in terms of religion.” On the face of it, Syed Ali Tawfik Al-Attas, sounds like a very progressive and tolerant Muslim, but the reality of the matter is that in Malaysia there is no such freedom for the Muslim who has chosen to live Islam.

No person who was born into a Muslim family has the legal right to leave Islam. The case of Lina Joy, Kamariah Ali, and most recently that of Revathi Masoosai are just a few examples where there is no freedom of conscience and the right to practise one’s religion of choice for the Malays.

In Revathi Masoosai’s case her marriage to a Hindu man is not recognized because she was born a Muslim and her husband never converted to Islam. The law in Malaysia does not recognize the marriage between a Muslim and a non-Muslim.

Apostasy is viewed as a serious matter in Malaysia because racial identity and religion for the Malays are one and the same. To be a Malay means to be a Muslim. Hence, the fear among the Malays is that if apostasy is allowed, that means eventually there will no longer be Malays.
Malays who have left Islam and converted to Christianity for example, have to live a double life, and their new found religion kept a secret. If they are found to have left Islam they would be sent to a rehabilitation center like what happened to Kamariah Ali and Revathi Massoosai.

In Malaysia the Sharia law is meant to be applied to Muslims, but where does that leave the non-Muslim who has left Islam? Lina Joy insisted that the Sharia law was not applicable to her because she had left Islam, but that did not help her case at all. The Sharia Court is still the one to determine whether or not people like Lina Joy and Revathi Masoosai are Muslims or not.

As a Malaysian who values freedom of religion, I feel that the Constitution of Malaysia needs to be amended so that people can have the right, a real right, to practise the religion of their choice without fearing threats of detention, rehabilitation and threats of death hanging over their heads. And words like “You can’t at whim and fancy convert from one religion to another,” from a Federal Court Judge, a thing of the past.

Religion should be a personal matter between an individual and his/her God.  And as such no apostasy law is ever going to stop a person from exercising his or her right to freedom of conscience.

It all starts with one simple sentence, spoken almost in a whisper, but which has a thunderous effect.A female police officer deployed in Tehran’s latest moral crackdown tells a woman that her manto (overcoat) is too short and infringes Iranian Islamic dress rules. “Azizam (my dear), good afternoon, if possible could we have a friendly chat, please allow us to have a small chat,” the officer, a graduate of Tehran’s police academy, tells the young woman.

“My dear there is a problem with your manto. Please do not wear this kind of manto. Please wear a longer manto from now on.”

Some are just let go there, but others are escorted to waiting minibuses with dark black tinted window panes and labelled “Guidance Patrol.”

A girl in a short white manto whose long hair was tumbling out the front of her headscarf is taken by the police to one of the minibuses on Vanak Square in central Tehran — an unexpected and unhappy end to her shopping trip.

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Look at how the young woman is dressed. Does that look like vice to you? If Iran is an example of how Islamic law is practised, Malaysia better not ask to be an Islamic state! Can you see all the Malay girls in their tight outfits but wearing their “tudungs” being rounded up by the moral police?

Is it any wonder that young people in societies like those in Iran and Saudi Arabia feel like they are being caged? Sooner or later they rebel, and one way of rebelling is the use of illegal drugs.

If you care to browse around the internet there are plenty of sexy home made (I mean x- rated!) videos of young people from Middle-Eastern countries. The moral police can arrest young people for breaking the dress code, but there are other ways that they can get around the moral police.