August 6, 2012
"Un-Islamic" Book Trial Opens in Malaysia
Bookstore Raids Raise Concerns about the Rule of Law in Southeast Asian State
by Kate Mayberry @http://www.aljazeera.com
The three officers from the Federal Territories Islamic Affairs Department, better good known by the Malay denunciation acronym JAWI, were courteous though brought with them twenty alternative men. They milled around the shop, browsing the shelves as good as receiving cinema upon their mobile phones.
The officers asked the employees either the emporium was offered Allah, Liberty as good as Love, the newly released book by New York-based Canadian academic Irshad Manji.
Understandably, the staff, dealing with the raid by the eremite authorities for the initial time, was nervous. They lead the group to the shelf where the offending book was upon display. After confiscating the integrate of copies, the officials asked for the manager.
Stephen Fung, the Malaysian Chinese as good as non-Muslim, who buys the books as good as distributes them to the 6 Borders branches in as good as around the capital, was the initial to verbalise to the men. But afterwards they asked to see the many comparison Muslim member of staff. The store manager, Nik Raina Nik Abdul Aziz, the 36-year-old Malay lady planning for her marriage as good as in the surrounded by of the marriage march during her internal mosque, happened to be upon shift.
Accusations
"They singled out the Malay women as good as asked them if they were married," 
Borders Books' Chief Operating Officer Yau Su Peng (right) told Al Jazeera. "Those who pronounced they were singular were afterwards accused of being the lesbian. Some were in tears.
"Nik Raina as good as Fung were afterwards ordered to crop up during JAWI's offices the subsequent day. When they did so, Nik Raina's warn was incited away, denying her the right to warn that's enshrined in Malaysia's constitution.
All this happened even yet during the time, upon May 23, Allah, Liberty as good as Love wasn't essentially banned.Some groups had voiced fluster about the book as good as Borders had been forced to terminate the "meet-the-author" event with Manji progressing in the month following threats of violence, though no fatwa had been issued. Borders pronounced it had been given no indication which there was the problem with offered the book.
Indeed, it was upon sale during alternative shops in the same selling complex.With the Muslim Malay infancy as good as large communities of non-Muslim Chinese, Indian as good as indigenous people, Malaysia has prolonged prided itself upon the racial farrago as good as eremite tolerance.
For decades, Shariah courts, with office over the personal lives of the country's Muslims, have operated alongside the polite complement with the Federal Constitution as the country's supreme authorised document. But as Islam has turn increasingly politicised as good as the eremite authorities some-more assertive, the complement has come under augmenting strain.
Religious authorities 'emboldened'
The box "is symptomatic of an shocking trend in which eremite authorities have turn augmenting emboldened by the miss of proper oversight as good as the secular 'leash'", Azrul Mohd Khalib, who writes the mainstay for the online journal the Malaysian Insider as good as works upon HIV/AIDS issues, told Al Jazeera. Nik Raina is charged with di! stributi ng the book that's offensive to Islam, even yet her pursuit doesn't involve selecting the books for the store or stacking the shelves.
Due in justice upon Tuesday (August 7), she faces not customarily the prospect of the 3,000 ringgit fine ($ 1,000) as good as the two-year prison term, though the rapist record. "There was no fatwa, no communication, not even so many as the phone call," Yau said. "Nik Raina is being persecuted because she's the Muslim.
"The Borders raid took place scarcely three weeks before the Home Ministry's Publication as good as Quranic Text Control Division published the ban, dogmatic the book "prejudicial to probity as good as open order". JAWI, which ultimately reports to the Prime Minister's Office, says it doesn't need the justice order to raid the bookshop similar to Borders if it suspects it's offered "un-Islamic" material.
It's the perspective that's echoed by Jamil Khir Baharom (left), Minister in the Prime Minister's Department as good as the man responsible for Islamic affairs in the government.Lawyers admit which laws statute the eremite authorities in particular states have been quite broad. But there is scepticism about the charges which have been brought.
"It seems the eremite authorities have had to find someone who is the Muslim inside of the Borders organization to be charged," pronounced warn Andrew Khoo, the co-chair of the Malaysian Bar Council's Human Rights Committee. "The subject is either the suitable person has been charged or either she's the oblivious scapegoat of people trying to make the unenforceable."
As the association Borders can't be charged, as good as neither can Fung. JAWI's officers admitted as many as they handed Fung the summons. After Nik Raina had been charged as good as the date set for the Shariah ! hearing, Borders schooled it had cumulative the authorised examination to plea the raid in the polite court. The conference was set for the integrate of weeks before the Shariah case. But afterwards JAWI asked to have the conference brought forward, the pierce it pronounced was in the open interest. JAWI did not respond to emails or phone calls requesting comment upon the raid as good as the aftermath
Book seizures
It's not customarily Borders, the association tranquil by racial Chinese business tycoon
Vincent Tan, which has incited to the polite courts. The publisher of the Malay denunciation book of the book, ZI Publications as good as the owner/director Ezra Zaid (right), additionally sought the authorised review.
As with Borders, during slightest twenty people incited up during ZI's offices looking to seize the book. "The regard for me, as good as especially for my staff, was the authorised office in which they were operating," he said.
Raman Krishna has run Silverfish Books in the Kuala Lumpur suburb since 1999. It's the small operation specialising in Malaysian books as good as the kind of essay which isn't upon the bestseller lists. JAWI visited Silverfish upon June 1. While the twin officers were polite as good as showed Raman the bulletin of the soon-to-be published anathema when he asked to see it, they warned him which if he had any Muslim staff upon the payroll they would be during risk of charge if the book were discovered.
"The alternative part of this is censorship by harassment," Raman (left! ) pronou nced in an interview during his shop. "We have the name for it, 'budaya samseng' the enlightenment of gangsterism. It's absurd. No courteous multitude would tolerate this. we do not understand why Malaysians do."
After JAWI's visit, Borders wrote to the suitable ministers to demonstrate their regard over the resources of the raid as good as the continued charge of Nik Raina. It's not just Nik they're concerned about.The company, which bought the rights to the Borders' name when the US primogenitor association folded, employs 150 people, 77 per cent of them Muslim.
It has yet to embrace any response, although the consequence of Nik Raina 
being found guilty could have critical implications for all Malays simply trying to earn the living; either an racial Malay crew member serving booze to the non-Muslim newcomer upon the Malaysia Airlines moody or the waiter serving food to non-Muslim Malaysians during Ramadan fasting hours.
"We have the supervision rhetoric of Malaysia being the on-going democracy as good as the centre for assuage Islam, though afterwards you have the political action upon the ground, the miss of political will to tackle issues similar to this as good as the decline in to Gothic times," pronounced Imtiaz Malik Sarwar (right), the inherent expert as good as warn who's representing ZI Publications as good as Ezra. "It's very worrying."
Change in focus
Borders' try to delay Tuesday's record in the Shariah Court until the execution of the authorised examination was unsuccessful. Citing the Constitution, High Court Judge Rohana Yusuf pronounced the polite courts didn't have the management to intervene in the Shariah case. But she additionally noted the seeming "lack of great faith" upon the part of JAWI as good as prono! unced sh e was confident the Shariah Court itself would grant the stay of proceedings.
A delay would assistance ease the little of the confusion surrounding the box as good as uncover the kind of authorised co-operation which lawyers such as Khoo say is required for the twin complement to work effectively. But the subject of office stays the formidable one. Where alternative countries have found the twin complement unworkable, Malaysia has persevered, often by steering divided from formidable debates over where office ultimately lies.
A integrate of decisions during the finish of July, the single of them backing an progressing statute to lift the anathema upon the book about women as good as Islamic law, have raised hopes which the polite courts have been becoming some-more assertive. What started off as the surprise raid by the eremite authorities upon an gullible bookshop might finally force the discussion few have been willing to risk.
There "needs to be the little acknowledgement of how the rule of law works in this country", pronounced Ezra. "There's the lawlessness in which they have been operating. All we wish to know is where the polite liberties finish as good as where they begin. And, if I'm the Muslim, where does Shariah intercede.
This unequivocally is the litmus exam of the sincerity of the authorised system."Irshad Manji is not the customarily bard to find her works criminialized in Malaysia. Lebanese-American poet Khalil Gibran, Booker Prize-winning novelist Salman Rushdie, polemicist Christopher Hitchens as good as Peter Mayle, the British bard best good known for his tales of expatriate hold up in France, have all had books criminialized in the past four decades.
Since 1971, the little 1,517 books as good as alternative pu! blicatio ns have been combined to Malaysia's criminialized list. Along with magazines as good as newspapers, books have been additionally monitored for content. Pictures have been infrequently blackened out with coop pen or pages private altogether.
Operating under the Printing Presses as good as Publications Act 1984, the Publication as good as Quranic Text Control Division is in charge of the process. It decides which publications have been allowed to be sold as good as which have been deemed too dangerous for the Malaysian open to see. As Malaysia battled the Communist insurgency, early bans focused upon Communism as good as politics. In the 1980s as good as 1990s, as good as the predicted bans upon adult magazines, kung fu held the censors' attention. These days, sex as good as sacrament have been the many supportive subjects.
Un-Islamic' book hearing opens in Malaysia "There was no fatwa, no communication, not even so many as the phone call. Nik Raina is being persecuted because she's the Muslim."- Yau Su PengBANNED BOOKS
Irshad Manji's Allah, Liberty as good as Love is the fifth to be combined to the list this year. Peter Mayle's sex preparation bookWhere did we come from? was private from bookshops in Feb as good as criminialized the following month. The book, designed to assistance parents tell their children the facts of life, has sold some-more than twin million copies around the world since it was initial published scarcely 40 years ago.
Text Control Division cabinet member Abdul Aziz Nor says his team customarily acts following the censure from the public, which was apparently the box with Mayle's book. But they additionally guard imports during pass entrance points, together with the Kuala Lumpur International Airport where twenty officers have been stationed.
"We cannot review every book which comes in to Malaysia so we look during the topic," Abdul Aziz told Al Jazeera. "We might pick up the single or twin formed upon that."
On which basis, Hitchens' bestseller God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything unequivocally didn't stand the chance. It was criminialized in 2009.
"All we wish to know is where the polite liberties finish as good as where they begin. And, if I'm the Muslim, where does Syariah intercede. This unequivocally is the litmus exam of the sincerity of the authorised system."- Ezra Zaid
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