Malaysiakini.com
4 April 2008

Ikim: No such khalwat proposal

Institute of Islamic Understanding (Ikim) said that Tuesday's report in the Star headlined "Proposal to prosecute non-muslims for khalwat" as entirely erroneous.

According to an Ikim statement dated April 3, the seminar it organised in collaboration with the Syariah Judiciary Department was intended to review existing syariah laws and to propose solutions to problems pertaining the syariah system in Malaysia.

Ikim said the news report was not right as no proposal to prosecute non-muslims for khalwat, be it under the syariah or civil court, was ever made.

“The article in the Star which reports that the seminar had proposed that non-Muslims caught committing khalwat with Muslims should also be sentenced accordingly but in the civil courts, is entirely erroneous,” said Ikim director-general Dr Syed Ali Tawfik Al-Attas in the statement.

“No such proposal was made, and therefore if what is reported in the Star as being comments allegedly made by Syariah Court of Appeal Judge (Mohd Asri Abdullah), are also in error,” he added.

"If indeed the learned judge made those statements, we strongly advise that it would behove the judge to be more circumspect in future," he said.

He added that Ikim held that non-Muslims cannot fundamentally be charged under any provision in Islamic law by virtue of the fact that they do not profess the religion of Islam.

“In addition, to my knowledge, there is no such provision in the civil courts to charge a person for khalwat, and therefore it would be premature to assume that non-Muslims can also be subjected to the charge of khalwat in the civil courts,” he said.

"I am disappointed with the article highlighting comments made by Mohd Asri Abdullah which emphasized the banal, when in reality the more important substantive proposals concerning laws protecting the rights of divorced women and their rights to maintenance were ignore," said Syed Ali.

Syed Ali also disagreed with the Star article on a proposal "for the establishment of a rehabilitation centre for those convicted of offences related to morals and faith such as prostitution and effeminate men".

"To my knowledge, I have never interpreted being effeminate as an offence," he said.

SIS opposes "moral policing"

Meanwhile, in a statement yesterday, Sisters in Islam (SIS) reiterated its strong objection to the current practice of moral policing by the state, saying it contravened certain Quranic verses.

"The practice of barging into people's houses and bedrooms, in particular, clearly violates an individual's right to privacy and human dignity protected by the Quran."

SIS said that khalwat raids were never carried out during the prophet Muhammad's lifetime and it was reported that the second Caliph Sayidina Umar was rebuked for barging into a suspect's residence.

"Such practice is also not the norm in many Muslim countries," it added.

"The zealousness of religious officials in 'promoting good and preventing evil' has often led to public outrage because those arrested, especially women, were shamed and humiliated."

Other civil societies groups such as Bar Council, Aliran and Suaram also voiced out their objection to the proposal after it was reported on Tuesday.