The policing of Muslims! An evaluation

By admin-s On Jul 25, 2014

A rule that was there before does not mean that the rule is still relevant today.

Ahmad Mustapha Hassan

I remember that during my childhood days in Alor Star, Kedah, Ramadan was always the month when Muslims were forbidden to openly eat in public. The enforcers from the religious department would go around arresting those who broke this rule. Muslim eating shops were forbidden to open before three in the afternoon while non-Muslim restaurants were free to operate as usual.

In those days, we were more or less forced to fast as there were then no fast food outlets like KFC, McDonald’s, Pizza Hut and the like. At home there was definitely no food at all. There were no fridges, microwave ovens or such other amenities as found today where food could be stored and then reheated to be eaten anytime.

I am not sure what the actual purpose was in banning this open and public consumption of food. Possibly this was to show solidarity in respecting this holy month. Thus it became kind of routine for us children then not to eat in public and furthermore there was no place to go and buy food. God for that matter did not come into play at all. All were afraid of the religious department enforcers.

Also during that period of time, there was no other kind of policing of Muslims. There were no “khalwat” laws or any other kind of laws based on Islamic jurisprudence.

But today with the expansion of the religious departments, more laws have been enacted and thus Muslims are subjected to policing by the religious department enforcers.

Very little explanation has been given on why Muslims need to be subjected to policing. This kind of action seems to indicate that Muslims are a weak bunch of believers who must be subjected to supervision and control all the time.

The flock as it were had to be kept intact.

But not every aspect of the rituals practised in Islam has been enforced uniformly.

In the case of eating in public during the fasting month, only Muslim restaurants are made to open in the afternoon. The fast food outlets are allowed to operate as usual. The various complexes have many food outlets and of course hotels are allowed to continue to operate their restaurants. The rule therefore does not contain any logic at all. It has become anomalous.

A rule that was there before does not mean that the rule is still relevant today. Authorities need to rethink as only Muslim eating places have been discriminated against. Either all have to follow the same ruling or none at all.

There must be a purpose in having rules and if in implementing these rules, the outcome simply does not meet the required objective, then there must be some inadequacy in the rule. The rule therefore needs to be re-examined.