DAR AL ISLAM - MALAYSIA: SHARI'AH IS THE LAW OF THE LAND FOR MALAYSIA

Syariah court sole authority on Islam

KOTA KINABALU: The Federal Court’s decision in the Lina Joy case establishes the syariah court as the sole judicial institution in the country in regard to all things Islam.

Syariah Chief Judge Datuk Sheikh Ghazali Abdul Rahman said the decision meant that only the syariah court could judge cases involving Islam and apostates.

"The decision cements the court as the authority on Islam in the country. If other courts were allowed to interject in Islamic cases, that would make the syariah court’s role redundant," he said.

Sheikh Ghazali said this during a question-and-answer session at a gathering for the Malaysian Syariah Courts Department and the people at Wisma Muis here yesterday.

The Federal Court had, on May 30, dismissed Lina Joy’s appeal to remove the word "Islam" from her identity card.


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Malaysia bans Islam books

Malaysia has banned 37 publications that contain what it calls "twisted facts" on Islam.

The state Bernama news agency says the books and other publications were banned by the Internal Security Ministry.

An official in the Publications and Koranic Texts Control Division told Bernama their contents twisted facts and true Islamic teachings, or contained elements that misled the faithful and humiliated the prophets.

Most of the banned titles were published abroad in English but several are published in Indonesian or Malaysian.The banned titles include, "Glad News! God Loves You My Muslim Friends" and "Nine Parts of Desire, The Hidden World of Islamic Women,"

Earlier this year, the government banned "March 8," a book by activist K. Arumugam which documents bloody riots that erupted on that date in 2001.

In May, officers from the internal security ministry raided a Kuala Lumpur book store and confiscated 10 copies of a book on earlier race riots in 1969.

Discussions on race and religion are considered sensitive topics by the government, while sex and sexuality are seen as taboo.



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