Kelantan ignores Karpal: Would a husband allow his wife to be disturbed by MALE CUSTOMERS?

The Kelantan government remains firm on implementing Islamic law on non-Muslims despite strong objection from DAP national chairman Karpal Singh.

State Housing, Tourism, Arts and Culture Committee chairman Datuk Takiyuddin Hassan said the state government was prepared to face the risk of being sued by non-Muslims as each policy made in Kelantan was in line with the provisions in the Constitution.

"I don't want to comment on Karpal's statement. Firstly, I did not hear it directly from him, and secondly, if Karpal sees this legislation, he will agree with me. He's a lawyer.

"It's his right to sue the Kota Baharu Municipal Council (MPKB)...but read this law carefully, otherwise he (Karpal) will have to pay the (court) costs. We are not trying to be smart when we draw up a law or an act," he told a press conference at the MPKB building, here, today.

Newspapers reported today that Karpal has called on the Kelantan PAS government to explain the enforcement of Islamic law on non-Muslims in the state.

Karpal had said that non-Muslims in Kelantan who were issued summonses by MPKB based on Islamic law could challenge the summonses in court.

It was recently reported that a Kota Baharu hair salon manager, Ong Lee Ting, claimed that she was issued with a summons 11 times by the local authority since 2010 because her non-Muslim women workers had cut the hair of non-Muslim men. As result, she was fined RM200 to RM350 each time and she also claimed that other hair salons also faced the same problem.

Takiyuddin said the state government implemented the policy to protect women's honour, whether they were Muslims or not, in order to prevent them from being exposed to sexual harassment and prostitution.

He said hair salons had often been reported to be doing business only as a guise but behind that, were involved in illegal and immoral activities.

"Is a father willing to allow his daughter to be sexually harassed while at work or a husband willing to accept his wife being disturbed by male customers?" he asked. – Bernama