Furore over caning highlights rise of Islamic law

       Malaysia would be better off if all citizens, including non-Muslims, were subject toIslamic law including 'hudud' penalties like stoning adulterers and chopping off thieves' hands.
       HARUSSANI ZAKARIA, THE MUFTI FOR PERAK STATE.
       The dramatic case of a Muslim model who faces caning for drinking beer in Malaysia has highlighted concerns that Islamic law is on the rise and that the nation's secular status is under threat.
       Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno,32, was arrested at a hotel nightclub and sentenced to six strokes of the cane last month, in a rare prosecution of religious laws that ban alcohol for Malaysia's majority Muslim Malays.
       Her insistence that she was ready to face her punishment and would not appeal threw government and religious authorities into a spin as they attempted to carry out the sentence against a woman for the first time.
       As international headlines mounted,and foreign TV crews reported live from her family's home as the mother of two was detained ahead of the thrashing,she was abruptly released and the punishment is now on hold indefinitely.
       "The overriding view was that the sentence meted out was too harsh and is not commensurate with the offence,"said Women's Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil.
       She announced that the religious court would hold a review.
       "We are equally concerned not only for Kartika Sari, but also for the fact that this one particular case could have damaged the image of Malaysia in its fair and just implementation of the sharia law," the minister said.
       Despite the queasiness in meting out the sentence, in a jail not far from the glittering capital Kuala Lumpur, ethnic Muslim Malay politicians have long been competing to be seen as more pious than the other.
       The dynamic of "political Islam",which has alarmed Malaysia's minority ethnic Chinese and Indians, has gone into overdrive since 2008 elections that humiliated the long-serving Barisan Nasional coalition. The United Malays National Organisation (Umno) which leads the coalition and needs Malays as its bedrock, is being challenged by the conservative Islamic party PAS, a member of the resurgent Pakatan Rakyat opposition.
       "There is this whole business of outIslamising one another," said Azmi Sharom, an associate professor in the law faculty of Universiti Malaya.
       "There has been persistent talk that Islam is under threat for the past year and a half, since the results of the last general election." Prof Azmi said that in their eagerness to display their religious credentials, politicians were failing to check the creeping authority of the sharia courts, which operate in a dual-track system with the civil courts.
       Sharia courts can prosecute Muslims for certain offences including drinking alcohol and "proximity" or illicit contact with the opposite sex. While enforcement has been lax in the past, it is now becoming more aggressive, and the scope of the religious courts appears to be expanding.
       Prof Azmi said the government, which is keen to preserve Malaysia's reputation as a progressive and moderate Muslim nation, was skirting the issue by urging Ms Kartika to appeal."The crux of the matter is, how can we have such medieval laws on our books at all?" the professor said."I have a feeling this problem is going to get worse and worse because none of the leadership is going to have the guts to say - hold on, this is a secular democracy, we have to put a stop to this."
       Harussani Zakaria, the mufti for northern Perak state - an Islamic scholar empowered to give rulings on the Sharia - endorsed the push for stricter implementation of Islamic law.
       "People will ask, you have this law,why don't you practice it? When we practice it, then the government interrupts the process," he complained, adding that Ms Kartika should be punished swiftly. The influential cleric said Malaysia would be better off if all citizens, including non-Muslims, were subject to Islamic law including hudud penalties like stoning adulterers and chopping off thieves'hands.
       Zaid Ibrahim, a former cabinet minister in charge of legal affairs who quit last September and later switched to the opposition, said problems can arise if sharia pronouncements conflict with the constitution.
       "But which Malay political leaders from either side of the political spectrum dare touch it?" he said.
       "So the hardliners can and will always push and push and Malaysia will no longer be a liberal and moderate modern state," Mr Zaid said.