Court of Appeal upholds lifting of ban on SIS book

The Court of Appeal today upheld the Kuala Lumpur High Court decision two years ago to lift the Home Ministry’s book ban on the book ‘Muslim Women and the Challenges of Islamic Extremism’ by SIS Forum.

The court ruled that the book was “not prejudicial to public order”.

Justice Abdul Wahab Patail, who is leading a three-member panel, said the decision by the then-home minister (Syed Hamid Albar) to ban the book was “unreasonable and irrational”.

This follows the book had already been out in the market for over two years before it was banned by the government.

“The trial judge was right to rule the minister’s order has no objectivity in ruling that it would disrupt public order,” said Justice Abdul Wahab.

“If this book is said to be against the Islamic Advancement Department’s (Jakim) guideline, that does not mean the book is prejudicial to public order,” he said.

The unanimously decision today was made after a three-hour delay when one of the judges in the panel was not in attendance.

Court of Appeal judge Justice  Clement Allen Skinner is away in Kota Kinabalu to attend another hearing there.

Justice Abdul Wahab apologised for the three-hour delay in delivering the judgment as he had to email his judgment to Skinner before the judge concurred with the decision.

The other judge present was High Court judge Justice Mah Weng Kwai.

The court ordered Syed Hamid (ie the government), who is appealing the decision, to pay RM20,000 costs.

Book was banned on July 31, 2008

The book was banned by the Home Ministry’s publication unit as it found the book was “prejudicial to public order” on July 31, 2008, despite the book having been on the market since 2005.

After attempts by SIS to overturn the ban had failed, it filed a judicial review application at the KL High Court on Dec 15, 2008, where it named the then-home minister Syed Hamid Albar as the respondent.

After obtaining leave, Justice Mohamad Ariff Mohd Yusof lifted the ban on the book on the grounds it was not a threat to public security.

In delivering the High Court judgment on Jan 25, 2010, Justice Mohamad Ariff said he failed to see how the book could disrupt public order, as alleged by the Home Ministry.

“The book had been in circulation since 2005 but was only banned on 2008. Throughout the two years that it had been made available, there is no proof to suggest it had affected public order,” said Mohamad Ariff.

“Furthermore, the Home Ministry through its publication controls unit and the Islamic Advancement Department had only identified seven out of 215 pages that are said to be offensive. However, I failed to find the said pages and passages cited to be offensive,” ruled the High Court judge.

[More to follow]