Selangor’s law against gay sex unconstitutional: Federal court

[anddy]

https://coconuts.co/kl/news/selangors-law-against-gay-sex-unconstitutional-federal-court/

 

That's great news from Malaysia. I admit I am somewhat (very pleasantly!!) surprised, that a court there would stand up to the religious powers and tell them to stay out of people's private lives. 

Congratulations @spoon! And maybe you can comment on how surprising (or not) this is.

[spoon]

The ruling is not surprising at all, since the law hasnt change. Federal laws always superceeds state and religious laws, so if there is a conflict such as the case above, its an easy ruling. Whats surprising is that no one before this guy actually dare to challenge the religious state department on their authority to create and enforce such laws. Having said that, we still have in the federal law on "unnatural sex" inherited from the british gov that carries up to 20 years jail time (rarely enforced except during the infamous political attack on Anwar), and the guy can be charged under this law in civil court if the state gov wants to proceed with this. Interesting to see if it goes ahead or not. 

On the other hand, today, the same religious state department is launching a statewide witch hunt on a trans entrepeneur due to her failure to attend the islamic court proceeding for alleged insulting the religion. What she did was simply sponsoring a religious event, and attending the event while cross dressing. This is sad news indeed.

[PeterRS]

I would be grateful for Spoon's comments.

I have read up quite a bit about religious extremism in countries like Malaysia and Indonesia. It seems from what I have read that both countries were much less concerned with such extremism prior to 1979. That year of course saw the return of the Ayatollah Khomeini to rule Iran with his firebrand Islamic revolution. Increasingly governments in countries in Asia with a majority Islamic population (and even Singapore with a minority of Muslims) became increasingly concerned that Khomeini's strict interpretation of Islam and anti-western stance would spread generally to the Islamic world. So greater attention was soon paid to reinforcing religious laws.

Is that too general a view?

[spoon]

In case of malaysia, main reason of religious enforcement have been politically driven, and this is one of the product of democracy, where the majority gets their way. Malaysia are mainly sunni and doesnt recognize shia here, meaning any religion funding from the government are not accessible by shia community here. There are however few malaysians shia community, but rarely visible id say. I personally know one person only, an ex colleague in office. However, their number are really small, so i dont see how your statement about iran has anything to do with current situation. If anything, its just a bunch of religious officer exercising their power of course with blessing from their political leaders.

Although i should add, not only gays are facing these, our religious department are also enforcing premarital sex where there have been raids done on low budget hotel based on reports/tips. 

[khaolakguy]

On 2/26/2021 at 4:56 AM, spoon said:

Although i should add, not only gays are facing these, our religious department are also enforcing premarital sex where there have been raids done on low budget hotel based on reports/tips. 

I would be all for enforced premarital sex!

[spoon]

I guess i didnt made that clear. Its enforcing law against premarital sex on straight couple.