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Malaysia `monitoring' religious schools
by P. S. Suryanarayana
The Hindu (28.11.2002) / HRWF International Secretariat (29.11.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email info@hrwf.net - Even as the anti-terror vigil in some sensitive pockets of South-East Asia was stepped up, the Malaysian Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad, said today that his administration was monitoring the activities of religious schools in his country. This was being done in view of the perception that something other than religion was being taught in such schools in Malaysia, he underlined.
However, both Dr. Mahathir and the security authorities in the Philippines sought to downplay the terrorist threats in the region in the context of moves by a few countries to keep their diplomatic missions in Manila closed for the present in the wake of `credible' information about the possibility of terrorist strikes in the region.
Australia as also Canada and the European Union were among those seeking to take precautionary steps in Manila.The Filipino authorities, especially the security-related officials, sounded a cautionary note that "undue alarm'' should not be raised over the perceived terrorist threats in Manila and elsewhere in the Philippines.
A sense of confidence was exuded by the Filipino officials to underscore that the feared terrorist strikes might "not materialise''. However, the Australian Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, noted that Canberra had to take into account the indications that efforts were under way to foist ``Taliban-style regimes'' in some countries and pockets of South-East Asia.
The intelligence communities have been drawing attention to the suspected moves by the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), a South-East Asian outfit with an alleged allegiance to the Al-Qaeda. The JI's agenda is said to include the creation of a pan-regional Islamic super-state, consisting of Indonesia as also Malaysia and some segments of Thailand and the Philippines. The JI is suspected to have set its sights on Singapore too in this connection.
According to a prominent anti-terror expert in the region, the threat to South-East Asia might have now escalated as a direct result of the suspected `decentralisation' of a `fragmenting' Al-Qaeda.
While the Indonesian authorities arrested a few more suspects today in connection with the recent terrorist outrage in Bali, Dr. Mahathir sought to place the latest proactive action by the Malaysian authorities in a larger political perspective.
Dr. Mahathir said that there was no need for any alarm as the Malaysian authorities "have already taken action'' against suspected militants.
According to an authentic version of Dr. Mahathir's comments in this regard at Putrajaya today, Malaysia had acted on the basis of information some of the local militants had gone to Pakistan as also Afghanistan in the past to learn the use of force for anti-government activities.
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Malaysian couple to sue religious police
BBC News (26.09.2002)/ HRWF (30.09.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email info@hrwf.net - A Malaysian couple who have been married for 22 years plan to sue government officials who burst into their bedroom and arrested them under strict Islamic morality laws.
Abdul Halim Zainal Abidin and his wife Nooriah were staying in a rented room when the incident happened two years ago.
They were unable to produce their marriage certificate immediately, so the officials detained them for seven hours under a law which forbids unchaperoned close contact between unrelated Muslim men and women.
The couple, who have three children, are seeking compensation for wrongful arrest and humiliation.
Phone a friend
The couple were arrested when religious department officials in Perak state burst into their rented room in Ipoh - 200 kilometres (125 miles) north of the capital, Kuala Lumpur, after midnight in October 2000.
The New Straits Times newspaper said Abdul Halim and Nooriah were handcuffed, taken into custody and held overnight in police cells at separate locations.
The next day, Mr Abdul Halim was allowed to telephone a friend who fetched the marriage certificate and brought it to the police station.
Abdul Halim - a civil servant - said he was taking legal action because he had become frustrated at waiting for an apology from state officials, the newspaper reported.
Correspondents say religious department officers often raid hotel rooms or public parks frequented by lovers in the mainly Muslim country, detaining unmarried couples caught together.
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Women's group decries planned Islamic laws in Malaysian state as discriminatory
by Pauline Jasudson
AP (11.06.2002)/ HRWF International Secretariat (14.06.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - E-mail info@hrwf.net - A women's group demanded Tuesday that a Malaysian state government abandon its plans to pass Islamic laws that could include whipping women who are deemed to have made false allegations of rape.
Sisters in Islam, which is leading a coalition of eleven women's groups in opposing a bill for hudud, or Islamic criminal law, said it was discriminatory and a gross violation of the principles of justice.
While the state bill is never likely to be implemented because it clashes with the federal constitution, which has precedence, many women fear it will lead to a further erosion of their position in society. The rights group said many women complain they are already discriminated against by Islamic laws which apply nationally and are less stringent than those proposed in eastern Terengganu state.
The bill is the latest in a series of moves to introduce increasingly conservative measures in Terengganu, which has been ruled by the fundamentalist Pan-Malaysia Islamic Party since 1999.
Under the bill, women who allege rape can be charged with making slanderous accusations and flogged 80 times.
It also states that women cannot be trial witnesses, and that an unmarried woman who becomes pregnant has committed a crime akin to adultery. Some details, such as the punishment for the adultery crime, were not immediately available.
The federal government says the bill is a ploy to make Islam a political issue between the fundamentalist party and the government, which is dominated by the Malay Muslim-based party of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.
The two parties compete for votes among Malay Muslims, who are more than 60 percent of Malaysia's 23 million population. The fundamentalist party claims the government is not Islamic enough, while the government says its opponents encourage extremism.
Malaysia has large ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities mostly Christian, Buddhist or Hindu which fear their rights may be eroded amid political infighting among Muslim Malays, although Malaysia's constitution also enshrines a system of secular laws and freedom of religion.
Terengganu government officials have offered to meet opponents of the bill and say it is likely to be amended before it is introduced to the state parliament next month.
On Sunday, a Malay-language newspaper quoted Terengganu's Chief Minister Abdul Hadi Awang as saying clauses could be added to clarify that victims of crime would be protected. He did not give details. He also did not offer to remove the clauses related to alleged rape victims.
The fundamentalist party in 1993 introduced hudud laws in Kelantan, another state it controls, but they have never been enforced because policing is under the jurisdiction of the federal government.
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Malaysia detains 16 Indonesian Muslims for 'deviant religious teachings'
By Umm Mutma'inna
Ummahnews (06.03.2002) - HRWF International Secretariat (14.03.2002) C Website http://www.hrwf.net - Immigration authorities of the Malaysian state of Perak have detained 16 Indonesian Muslims on suspicion of being involved in deviant teaching at two premises in the capital city of Ipoh, some 250 kilometers north of Kuala Antara news agency quoted Immigration Director Ishak Mohamed as saying the authorities arrested the Indonesians following a tip-off from members of the public that 20 people regularly gathered at a shop-house in Bandar Baharu Menglembu on certain nights to practice deviant teachings.
Ishak, who headed the raid, said of the 12 Indonesian nationals picked up from the first premise, 10 were permanent residents in Malaysia while the remaining two did not posses any passport of valid travel documents. The enforcement unit then went to another house at a housing estate and arrested four other Indonesians. Two of them have overstayed and the other two had notravel documents.
Copies of the Qur'an, religious pamphlets, a list of conditions for learning silat (a local martial art) and an account book on donations received for the building of the "Fisabilillah House" were found on the premises. No details were given on what the authorities have found as "deviant teachings." Ishak said the Indonesians were handed over to the Perak Islamic religious affairs department for analysis. He said if the department established that they were involved in deviant teachings, their status as permanent residents would be revoked and they would be sent back to Indonesia.
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Malaysia blocks Newsweek issue over picture of Muhammad
Associated Press (13.02.2002)/ HRWF International Secretariat (15.02.2002) C Website http://www.hrwf.net C Email info@hrwf.net-Malaysia joined Indonesia and Bangladesh Wednesday in blocking distribution of Newsweek magazine's current edition because it contains a picture of the Muslim prophet, Muhammad."Normally, if publications contain photographs said to be that of the Prophet Muhammad or such figures, the law of the country would have been violated," Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was quoted as saying by the national news agency, Bernama
"As such, we will not allow the edition to be circulated," he was quoted as saying.
Neighboring Indonesia - the world's most populous Muslim country - and Bangladesh have blocked distribution of Newsweek's latest edition.
Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Sans Frontieres, or Reporters Without Borders, recognized that Islam forbids depictions of its 25 prophets, but said it considered the Newsweek ban to be censorship and "an attack on the free flow of information."
The magazine's distributor in Indonesia, PT Indoprom, said it had heeded advice from the Indonesian Ulamas Council, a religious body, which recommended it hold back the magazine.
In Bangladesh, the government banned the magazine, fearing a popular backlash.
Indonesia and Malaysia both have secular governments which are nevertheless sensitive to issues regarding religion and ethnicity.
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