Malaysian Islamic Scholar Rejects Syariah For Non-Muslims

One of Malaysia’s top religious scholars yesterday lashed out at comments by an Islamic judge that religious laws on close proximity affecting Muslims should be applied to non-Muslims.

The issue of Shariah or Islamic law is sensitive among non-Muslims here who fear a growing “Islamisation” of the country.

On Thursday, Islamic Court of Appeal Judge Mohamed Asri Abdullah told a local paper that a religious seminar was proposing that Islamic law on the issue of Khalwat or close proximity should also be applied to non-Muslims through the civil courts.

His comments created a major uproar with non-Muslim religious groups in the country criticising the proposal as a violation of their constitutional rights.
The proposal would apply to a non-Muslim who was with a Muslim and would not relate to two non-Muslims.

Now the head of the group organising the seminar has also condemned the suggestion. “This is something utterly erroneous,” said Syed Ali Tawfik al-Attas (pic), the head of the Malaysian Institute of Islamic Understanding. “We are not in agreement with (Mohamed Asri) at all and because of this... our close friendship and important association with the non-Muslims... is now in jeopardy because ... people are now not going to trust us,” he added.

“In Islam it says to you yours to us ours in terms of religion. For us to think that we can apply Islamic Shariah law to non-Muslims, that is tantamount to (idolatry) because we are assuming we know better than God.”

Rights group SUARAM has also criticised the proposal as a violation of religious freedom. (Gulf Times - Qatar)

***** It's a relief to know that sensible scholars like Syed Ali Tawfik al-Attas are still around. Now that the matter has been more or less clarified by the IKIM boss himself, what of the Syariah Court of Appeal Judge Mohamed Asri Abdullah? Don't you think that it is high time that he was transferred to a desk job somewhere in IKIM where he cannot do much damage to inter-religious harmony? Or better still a second or third secretary post at our embassy in one of the Gulf states where he can spend the next decade or so researching the various punishments for khalwat?