PUTRAJAYA, June 19 – Muslim women’s rights group Sisters in Islam (SIS) today won its nearly 11-year-long court challenge against a Selangor fatwa, which means that its company — SIS Forum (Malaysia) — is no longer labelled “sesat” or deviant from Islamic teachings.
Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, who chaired the Federal Court’s five-judge panel, read out the majority judgment which quashed parts of the Selangor fatwa.
The Selangor fatwa, issued in 2014, had four paragraphs:
1. SIS Forum (Malaysia) and any individual, organisation or institution who hold on to “liberalism and religious pluralism” as “deviants” from Islamic teachings.
2. Any publications with elements of liberalism and religious pluralism should be banned and can be seized.
3. The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) is to block social websites that go against Islamic teachings and hukum syarak (Islamic law).
4. Any individuals holding on to liberalism and religious pluralism should repent and return to Islam.
Now, the Federal Court said the first paragraph was only valid for the part where it referred to individuals (and which means that the parts referring to SIS Forum, organisation and institution are no longer valid), and the second and third paragraphs are also invalid, while the fourth paragraph remains valid.
The two other judges on the panel who supported the majority judgment are President of the Court of Appeal Tan Sri Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim and Federal Court judge Tan Sri Nallini Pathmanathan.
Federal Court judge Datuk Abu Bakar Jais was the only judge who dissented, and read out his minority judgement where he gave his opinion that the Shariah courts should be the one to decide on the legality of the fatwa.
Federal Court judge Datuk Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil had also sat on the panel but is now retired. – The MalayMail
