 |
Malaysia appears determined to make an international fool of itself. (John Berthelsen, Malaysian Insider)
The latest news, according to Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, the women’s minister, is that the country is considering organizing an international conference on caning and whether it is an appropriate punishment for women under Islamic law.
The announcement by Shahrizat comes on the heels of a government statement last week, nine days after the fact, that a Shariah court had ordered the caning of three women for adultery.
A fourth, far more publicized, is the case of Kartika Dewi Shukarni, a part-time model who was ordered by a Shariah court to be caned for drinking beer. The case is still up in the air while the regent of Pahang state decides how to treat the matter.
This all is in addition to the widely publicized show trial of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on charges of consensual sex with a male, a selective prosecution at best even if he did it, since Kuala Lumpur is thronged with gay bars, and political persecution at the worst over widespread suspicion that the charges were trumped up.
There is also the January violence in the wake of a High Court judge’s decision to allow the Malaysian Catholic Church to use the word Allah as a synonym for God in the Malay-language editions of its newspaper, the Catholic Herald. Eleven churches, a Sikh temple and two Muslim prayer rooms were attacked.
FULL STORY
Spare the rod, spoil the nation (Malaysian Insider)
(4 votes, average: 3.75 out of 5)
Loading ...267 words
Share this article:
Subscribe to our feed (RSS)
Share a story with us
Follow us on Twitter