11/07/2021 Malaysia (Worldwide Christian Concern) – A newly applied set of Sharia legal guidelines in Malaysia’s Kelantan state is criminalizing 24 new offenses, together with the try to convert out of Islam.
In July 2020, the state sultan, Muhammad V, agreed and handed the Kelantan Syariah Prison Code (I) Enactment 2019, which was amended primarily based on the Syariah Prison Code (II) 1993 and the present 1985 Syariah Prison Code. The brand new Sharia legal guidelines got here into impact on November 1, 2021.
In response to the state’s chief minister Ahmad Yakob, the enactment allows the state’s Syariah courts to listen to and choose on circumstances pertaining to a selected checklist of offenses, with punishments together with a jail time period of no more than three years and a wonderful of as much as RM5,000 (US$1202) or strokes of the cane.
The 24 offenses that will likely be punished embrace trying to transform out of Islam, distortion of Islamic teachings, disrespecting the month of Ramadan, destroying homes of worship, disobeying dad and mom, tattooing, and present process cosmetic surgery.
The Star stories that in the course of the October 31 briefing, minister Ahmad was quoted as saying that the enforcement of the enactment was geared toward educating and bringing the offenders again to the fitting path of Islam, not simply merely punishing them. He added that the implementation of recent legal guidelines could be helpful in strengthening the Sharia legislation, not solely in Kelantan, but in addition in different states in Malaysia.
Critics in Malaysia are involved concerning the new enactment, because it contributes to unique and illiberal Islam. The ladies’s rights group Sisters in Islam (SIS) said that these developments violate basic ideas of democracy by suppressing crucial thought and expression by arbitrary provisions, and punishing those that don’t toe the road.
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