Malaysia

[RTH10260]

"This Should Not Happen In A Muslim Country" Malaysia Top Court Faces Backlash For Sharia Law Ruling

CRUX
9 Feb 2024

Malaysia's top court Friday struck down over a dozen Shariah state laws, saying they encroached on federal authority.
Many Muslims denounced the decision, and said they feared it would undermine religious courts in Malaysia.
In an 8-1 ruling, the nine-member Federal Court panel invalidated 16 laws made by the opposition-run Kelantan state government, which imposed punishments for offenses from sodomy, sexual harassment, incest, and cross-dressing to giving false evidence.

[RTH10260]

Malaysia’s top court rules some Islamic laws in Kelantan unconstitutional
Majority ruling could have major legal implications in multiethnic country that operates a dual judicial system.

9 Feb 2024

Malaysia’s top court has ruled that 16 Islamic laws in the northeastern state of Kelantan are unconstitutional in a landmark decision that could have major implications for the country’s legal system.

By an 8-1 majority, the Federal Court ruled on Friday that the Kelantan state government did not have the power to enact the laws, on offences from sodomy to sexual harassment, possession of false information, intoxication and scale measurements, because they were already covered in civil law and were the responsibility of the federal parliament.

Malaysia is a federal country where states have jurisdiction over laws related to Islam, the official religion. It also operates a dual legal system where Islamic law applies to Muslims, who make up just over 60 percent of the population, in personal and family matters, as well as the practice of their religion. All other offences are handled by the civil courts.

Kelantan, seen as the heartland of ethnic Malay Muslim culture, has been ruled by the opposition Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) since 1990.

“The power of parliament and state legislatures are limited by the Federal Constitution and they cannot make any laws they like,” Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mai was quoted as saying by Malaysia’s BFM radio as she delivered the findings of the nine-judge panel.

The case was brought in 2022 by Kelantan lawyer Nik Elin Zurina Nik Abdul Rashid and her daughter after the state government passed a new set of laws on Islamic offences.

The two challenged the constitutionality of 18 of the laws arguing that they were beyond the jurisdiction of the state assembly and already covered by parliament.

The Federal Court did not strike down the two other laws and Chief Justice Tengku Maimun stressed that the two women had not brought the case to challenge the position of Islam or the Islamic legal system.




https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/9 ... titutional

[Ben-Prime]

Having done two vacations in Malaysia of 1 week back in 2019 (the capital area around Kuala Lumpur) and more than 2 weeks just recently in late 2023 (driving up from Singapore through Johor to spend time in Malacca and then up into Selangor and again hit the KL area), I have found it at least on that side of the peninsular, it is one of the most lovely, tolerant, multi-cultural, and generally warm and welcoming countries I have ever visited. On that recent visit, I encountered several other Americans -- POCs from the San Francisco area who were first-time visitors to Malaysia, picked my brain for a good half-hour in a big marketplace about the things to see, and expressed themselves delight with how amazingly lovely, inexpensive, less-prejudiced-against-POCs-than-other-Asian-countries, and a generally great place to be the country was, and yet most Americans don't think of the place at all and most of the Westerners who vacation there are Brits or Aussies. We parted with them promising me they'd spread the word in their circles that Malaysia was awesome and more Americans need to visit and spend dollars there.

I know it sounds vaguely shallow of me -- I've spent 3 weeks in some major cities and hitting the traffic corridors between them and I know how little I truly have scratched the surface. But my current grandboss spent 3 years serving in a senior staff role at our Embassy there and has toured most of the country and shares my general positive views towards the place; my overall experiences have been so positive that I would be sad if bad things happened to this country. So I will be watching this thread with interest, for my own part.

[keith]

Having done two vacations in Malaysia of 1 week back in 2019 (the capital area around Kuala Lumpur) and more than 2 weeks just recently in late 2023 (driving up from Singapore through Johor to spend time in Malacca and then up into Selangor and again hit the KL area),

I agree, but my experience is even less than and longer ago than yours. I was in Penang for 5 days or so in 1989 I think, and you couldn't have asked for a friendlier and more welcoming place. We stayed in a little back alley Chinese hotel that SWMBO had stayed in back in her hippy backpacking days and the staff was the same and she even remembered their names after a bit of prompting and they 'loved us' to death. We did spend 1 night at a resort, and it was great, but 100% tourist isolated - NMCOT. Lots of Aussies from Butterworth though. You couldn't spit without hitting one.

We needed to get to Singapore to get the plane home, and wanted to take the train but the hotel couldn't swing it so we had to fly. Therefore we didn't get into KL or the 'real' countryside.

[John Thomas8]

Uncle Roger!!!!!!!