Can state Islamic authorities decide what you can’t read?

By admin-s On Oct 9, 2014

(MMO) – In a landmark case that will determine the extent of the freedom of expression in Malaysia, the country’s top court will weigh today the constitutionality of a state Shariah law to ban “religious” publications deemed against Islam.

Local publishing house ZI Publications Sdn Bhd and its director Ezra Zaid are challenging a Selangor state law that essentially criminalises any person who “prints, publishes, produces, records, or disseminates in any manner any book or document or any other form of record containing anything which is contrary to Islamic Law”, or “has in his possession any such book, document or other form of record for sale or for the purpose of otherwise disseminating it”.

If found guilty under Section 16(1) of the Syariah Criminal Offences (Selangor) Enactment 1995, the offender faces a fine not exceeding RM3,000 or two years’ prison, or both.

In addition, Section 16(2) of the same law empowers the state Shariah Court to order any book, document or other form of record to be “forfeited and destroyed”, even when nobody is convicted under Section 16(1).

State law versus federal law

“What is interesting here is that you have a state trying to restrict expression… Things like books and attire, those are things that only the Parliament is entitled to restrict,” the publisher’s lead counsel, Nizam Bashir, told Malay Mail Online ahead of today’s monumental hearing at the Federal Court.

“We don’t want a situation where the states says they also have the power to regulate them,” he added.

The court battle began nearly two years ago on May 29, 2012, when the publisher’s office was raided by officers from Selangor’s Islamic Religious Department (Jais), who confiscated 180 copies of “Allah, Kebebasan dan Cinta”, the Malay translation of a book titled “Allah, Freedom and Love” by Canadian author Irshad Manji, under Section 16 of the Selangor religious law.

The publisher contends that under the Federal Constitution, the Selangor state assembly does not have the power to enact Section 16 of the Syariah Criminal Offences (Selangor) Enactment 1995 as the scope is already covered by the Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA) 1984, a federal law made in Parliament.

The appellants also contend that the law contravenes Article 10 of the Constitution which guarantees the right of freedom of speech and expression to each citizen.

“One of the questions is whether the state assembly has the power to do so, given that it can only criminalise in relation to anything not in the federal list and not provided by federal law,” Nizam said.