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SIS: Mufti bill facilitates creation of ‘backdoor’ laws through misuse of fatwas
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 1, 2024: Sisters In Islam (SIS) warns Malaysians, especially the 222 Members of Parliament (MPs), that the Mufti (Federal Territories) Bill 2024, if passed, could facilitate the creation of “backdoor” laws through a misuse of fatwas.
SIS says the process could be utilised to indirectly criminalise certain acts, bypassing altogether the legislative process.
In shot, multiracial Malaysians, especially Muslims, will lose their Constitutional rights and their lives be be at the mercy of muftis.
No News Is Bad News reproduces below a news report on SIS’ warning and our previous post on the issue:
SIS warns of potential ‘backdoor’ laws via FT’s mufti bill
-01 Nov 2024, 07:30 AM
Sisters in Islam says the process could be utilised to indirectly criminalise certain acts, bypassing altogether the legislative process.
Sisters in Islam warned that the proposed Mufti (Federal Territories) Bill 2024, if passed into law, could limit Islamic jurisprudence in Malaysia.
KUALA LUMPUR: A women’s rights group has warned that the proposed Mufti (Federal Territories) Bill 2024, if passed, could facilitate the creation of “backdoor” laws through a misuse of fatwas.
Sisters in Islam (SIS) advocacy, legal services and research manager Waheda Rufin said this process could be utilised to indirectly criminalise certain acts, bypassing altogether the legislative process.
She said a fatwa, once gazetted, cannot be questioned, and may be prosecuted under Section 12 of the Syariah Criminal Offences (Federal Territories) Act 1997.
“For instance, instead of criminalising sodomy, a fatwa could be issued declaring same-sex relationships forbidden (haram). So, instead of criminalising the act of sodomy, they just criminalise the act of defying the fatwa, not the action itself.
This process allows a law to be made outside of Parliament and the state assemblies, she said during a media briefing on Wednesday.
Waheda pointed out that in February, the Federal Court struck down an attempt to introduce sodomy as a shariah offence, holding that the Kelantan state assembly was not competent to include it as an offence in the state’s Syariah Criminal Code.
The gazetting of a fatwa would potentially allow the Islamic authorities to introduce the same law via the “backdoor”, she said.
SIS said another central issue lies in Clauses 13 and 14 of the bill, which allows the FT fatwa committee to consult the Muzakarah Committee, a key body within the National Council for Islamic Religious Affairs, on the issuance of fatwas affecting “national interest”.
The group warned that if both committees concur, the FT mufti may issue a fatwa on the subject which will have the force of law upon gazettement.
Another contentious aspect of the bill, SIS said, was the narrowing of accepted Islamic jurisprudence schools, which could limit broader Islamic scholarship in the country and fuel sectarian divisions.
SIS communications manager Ameena Siddiqi said the Administration of Islamic Law (Federal Territories) Act 1993 presently allows for Islamic law and practice to be interpreted according to any recognised mazhab.
Section 3 of the bill, however, seeks to restrict the practice of Islam to only the four major Sunni schools: Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i and Hanbali.
“The proposed bill would revoke the autonomy of Muslims in the Federal Territories to practice schools of thought of their choice, which is contrary to Islamic jurisprudence’s inherent diversity,” she said.
The bill, which was tabled for its first reading last July, has encountered significant opposition from various groups, including Muslim scholars and political figures.
It is scheduled for debate during the ongoing Dewan Rakyat meeting.
Wednesday 30 October 2024
Multiracial Malaysians in a religious extremism dilemma?
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PAS spiritual leader Hashim Jasin has dismissed Bukit Aman counter-terrorism chief Normah Ishak’s claims that PAS is banking on the Taliban to improve its Islamic image. Calling the claim an attempt to tarnish the party’s image, Hashim insisted that there was no proof that PAS was “following” the Taliban. For image info, go to https://focusmalaysia.my/pas-we-are-not-banking-on-the-taliban-to-improve-our-islamic-image/
Taliban spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi says that harsh punishments such as amputations and stoning are reserved for criminals in the most extreme cases, with the intention to deter crime. – @FabianEberhard Twitter pic, August 29, 2021. For image info, go to https://www.thevibes.com/articles/news/39921/taliban-thanks-pas-for-well-wishes-calls-human-rights-accusations-propaganda (EXCLUSIVE: Taliban thanks PAS for well wishes, calls human rights accusations ‘propaganda’)
Multiracial Malaysians in a religious extremism dilemma?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjh0bSGczcU (Watch how the Saudis have transformed themselves)
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 31, 2024: Multiracial Malaysians are in a religious and political dilemma, to say the least.
Come the next general election that must be held in 2027, who can they rely on for social and religious freedom?
They only have a choice between the Pakatan Harapan (PH), comprising DAP, PKR and Amanah (with the racist Umno as an ally?) or Perikatan Nasional (PN) comprising the Taliban-like PAS, Bersatu and Gerakan led by the racist Muhyiddin “I Am Malay First” Yassin.
Who then can multiracial Malaysians rely on for defending their Constitutional rights and freedom?
No News Is Bad News reproduces below a terrifying new Taliban edict that bans women from hearing each other’s voices!
Should the so-called Unity Government’s Mufti Bill be passed, will the mufti issue a similar edict or other edicts that not only curb the Constitutional rights and freedom of Muslims, but also likely affect non-Muslims?
What’s with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and his push to give the mufti unlimited powers to issue edits, and without having to face the law and Parliament?
Do the 222 Members of Parliament (MPs) want to risk turning Malaysia into a Taliban state?
‘No limits’: New Taliban edict bans women from hearing each other’s voices
A terrifying new rule has been inflicted on 14 million women, in the latest step toward the erasure of their rights in Afghanistan.
October 30, 2024 - 4:38PM
The Taliban has banned women in Afghanistan from hearing each other’s voices in what experts say is its latest step toward erasing “women entirely from public life and society”.
The country’s Minister for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, Khalid Hanafi, announced the new edict on female behaviour.
“Even when an adult female prays and another female passes by, she must not pray loudly enough for them to hear,” he said in his message.
A woman’s voice is considered “awrah” – meaning that which must be covered, and shouldn’t be heard in public – Mr Hanafi said.
“When women are not permitted to call takbir or athan [Islamic call to prayer], they certainly cannot sing songs or [make] music,” he said.
“How could they be allowed to sing if they aren’t even permitted to hear (each other’s) voices while praying, let alone for anything else.”
The exact details of the Taliban’s new ruling are unclear, though the minister said it “will be gradually implemented, and God will be helping us in each step we take”.
Human rights activists in both Afghanistan and abroad, however, have warned this latest measure by the Taliban could mean women are effectively banned from holding conversations with one another.
“It is hard to imagine the situation getting worse after the Taliban banned women’s voices and faces in public last month, but with this latest decree, we have seen that the Taliban’s capacity to inflict harm on women has no limits,” Zohal Azra, from the Australian Hazara Advocacy Network, told news.com.au.
Taliban Minister for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, Khalid Hanafi. Picture: Ahmad Sahel Arman/AFP
“Since returning to power in Afghanistan the Taliban has effectively erased women and girls from public life in methodical, and systematic approach involving over 105 decrees, edicts, and orders that are enforced violently and arbitrarily, including through detention, sexual abuse, torture and cruel, inhuman, or other degrading treatment and punishment such stoning and whipping women and girls.
“The situation is so dire that it requires urgent global intervention to support women in Afghanistan.
“Through these decrees the Taliban has established a system of gender apartheid.”
Amnesty International Australia’s Strategic Refugee Rights Campaigner, Zaki Haidari, told news.com.au that the situation for women and girls in Afghanistan is “growing darker by the day”.
“The Taliban is methodically punishing women, seemingly testing how far they can push before the world responds,” Mr Haidari, who is of Hazara background, said.
The world has “remained largely silent” since the early days of their regime, Mr Haidari said, and now “feels empowered, believing they have the power to erase women entirely from public life and society”.
Taliban security personnel stand guard as an Afghan burqa-clad woman walks along a street at a market in the Baharak district of Badakhshan province on February 26, 2024. Picture: Wakil Kohsar/AFP
As one woman, a former civil servant who lives in Kabul, told The Telegraph, the Taliban “are waging an all-out war against us, and we have no one in the world to hear our voices”.
“The world has abandoned us. They left us to the Taliban, and whatever happens to us now is a result of Western government policies,” she said.
“I feel depressed. The world is advancing in technology and having fun with their lives, but here we cannot even hear each other’s voices.”
Mr Haidari echoed the sentiment that Afghanistan has been “abandoned” by the rest of the world.
“After 20 years of war led by the US and its allies in the name of democracy and freedom, their departure feels like a betrayal,” he said.
“If these nations had taken their responsibilities seriously, they wouldn’t have left the Afghan people at the mercy of a terrorist regime.
“Women, in particular, are now being murdered, raped and erased from society with little meaningful intervention from the international community.”
‘If these nations had taken their responsibilities seriously, they wouldn’t have left the Afghan people at the mercy of a terrorist regime.’ Picture: AFP
As the Taliban’s oppression worsens, Human Rights Watch Australia director, Daniela Gavshon, told news.com.au it is “critical for governments claiming to support human rights and accountability to move from words to action”.
“We are seeing states try and put pressure on the Taliban through new, previously unused avenues – like trying to hold the Taliban to account for their serious violations of the rights of women and girls under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW),” she said.
“Yet while some states are trying, they need to do more.”
Last month, Australia, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands formally accused the Taliban of gender discrimination, in a case that will be taken to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), based in The Hague.
The case is the first legal move of its type since the Taliban’s takeover in 2021, and is also believed to be one of the first gender discrimination cases considered by the ICJ.
In a statement at the time, Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the four countries would not “stand by and allow the situation in Afghanistan to become a ‘new normal’”.
“The Taliban has demonstrated contempt for the human rights and fundamental freedoms of women and girls in Afghanistan, through a campaign of sustained and systematic oppression,” Senator Wong said.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Australia would not ‘stand by and allow the situation in Afghanistan to become a ‘new normal’’. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Martin Ollman
While this was “a welcomed step”, Ms Azra pointed out, “Australia was among the first countries in the world to join the war in Afghanistan”.
“We also played an outsized role in the war in Afghanistan, made many promises to Afghan women, and as a result we have a clear, moral obligation to support the women of Afghanistan,” she said.
“The Australian Government must match its outsized role in the war in Afghanistan, and promises to the people of Afghanistan with actual material support for women and girls under the Taliban rule.”
Such measures include “referring to the Taliban’s treatment of women and girls as gender apartheid”, ensuring that our humanitarian aid contributions to Afghanistan are “strictly conditional upon the improvement of human rights”, and making “greater use of its influence in international bodies like the UN to advocate for resolutions and sanctions against the Taliban regime due to their policies on women”, Ms Azra suggested.
“Now, more than ever, the women of Afghanistan need the world’s attention,” Mr Haidari said.
“We must amplify their voices and advocate for their basic human rights and very existence.
“While there are many crises unfolding across the globe, we must not forget the people of Afghanistan, especially the women, who are being silenced and oppressed.
“It is our collective responsibility to stand with them.”
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