Islamic university holds rare forum on homosexuality

There were seven sodomy cases tried in Malaysia over the past seven decades since 1938, Islamic Renaissance Front chairperson Farouk Musa told a groundbreaking forum on homosexuality in Universiti Islam Antarabangsa (UIA) last night.

More than half of these cases - four to be exact - were related to Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim, said Farouk in supporting his claim that Section 377 of the Penal Code had been used as “a state apparatus” to prosecute political opponents.

Farouk told UIA’s ‘Homosexuality: Crime or Right’ forum that the law, which prohibits anal and oral intercourse, is archaic and has no relevance in modern society.

“Are we saying that consenting adults, husband and wife, have no right to have oral sex?” asked the leader of the liberal Islamic group.

Farouk stressed that there should be a “clear demarcation where a state can intervene in personal matters.”

He also quoted scholars saying that the world is an “abode of trials”, where people should be able make free choice, including to sin and to repent.

“It must come out from your own belief, from your heart. Not because you are scared of the state intervention or the like, and to please some other people.

“If you do something just because you are afraid or scared that the state will take action against you, then the real, clean intention for the sake of God is not there,” he said.

Another panelist, Bar Council president Lim Chee Wee, said that there are about 76 out of 190-odd countries that still criminalise homosexuality, most of which are Commonwealth countries that have inherited the law from their colonial masters.

To illustrate that the issue of gay rights is not a cultural confrontation between the West and East or Islamic countries, Lim named several non-Western countries where homosexuality is not a crime.

These include Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Laos, Mongolia, Vietnam, Niger, Bukina Faso, and Indonesia - at the national level, although some provinces have enacted anti-gay laws - of which the latter three are Muslim-majority countries.

In answering the moderator’s question whether homosexuality is a crime or a right, Lim said, “Certainly at its lowest common denominator, (it is) a right not to persecuted, a right not to be humiliated, and a right not to be discriminated against.”

Speaker causes stir with remarks

Another panelist, IIUM constitutional expert Shamrahayu A Aziz argued that “what is immoral cannot be a right”. As a consequence, she said the federal constitution allows restrictions on immoral activities.

Shamrahayu asserted that homosexuality is “a sin as well as a crime”, and cited concerns that if homosexuality becomes a right, it would lead to the slippery slope of allowing same-sex marriages.

“This is what I am worried about for our nation. This is what I worry not only for religion, but also for this (Malaysian) civilisation.

“We have to have a touchstone in this civilisation, and that touchstone is morality,” said the associate law professor.

Shamrahayu also caused a stir in the otherwise cordial atmosphere when she said that kindergartens should not hire homosexuals as kindergarten teachers, just as a bank should not hire a gambler.

“Would I hire someone who has this morally, ungodly attitude to work in my (hypothetical) kindergarten? I won’t,” she said.

This prompted a question from one of the 100-odd audience asking if she had to choose between a homosexual and a promiscuous person to be a teacher, what would be her choice.

Another member of the audience shouted “how are you going to check”, and he was joined by yet another who said that homosexuality is not about sex.

Shamrahayu was unfazed.

“Give me the freedom of choice. I am an employer and you are pushing me to choose what I don’t like,” she said, raising her voice among the noisy audience.

“If you want to be a gay, that’s your choice. Give me the choice to choose my employee.”

Seksualiti Merdeka founder welcomes forum

Meanwhile, Seksualiti Merdeka founder Pang Khee Teik, who was also among the audience, told the forum that he was grateful that the discussion was being held, and that Shamrahayu was willing to be a panelist despite being uncomfortable with the topic and disagreeing with it.

“As a Malaysian growing up being gay, feeling and hearing everyday how society wants me to be captured, arrested, beaten up, stoned to death... to be able to see a forum like this in this esteemed university is very touching to me.

“I am very touched that we can finally talk about it, and that is all that we are asking for,” he said.

Pang added that people are entitled to think that homosexuality is wrong, but the LGBT community would like to see equal treatment under the law and equal access to opportunities.