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Wednesday, December 10, 2014

SIS can contest Selangor fatwa calling it ‘deviant’

The High Court today said Sisters in Islam could challenge the Selangor fat which declared it as a deviant group. – Facebook pic, December 10, 2014.The High Court today said Sisters in Islam could challenge the Selangor fat which declared it as a deviant group. – Facebook pic, December 10, 2014.
Sisters in Islam (SIS) can now challenge the Selangor fatwa which declares it as one which promotes deviant teaching.
The High Court today granted SIS leave to mount its legal challenge against the Selangor Fatwa Committee, the Selangor Islamic Religious Council (Mais) and the state government.
High Court judge Datuk Asmabi Mohamad, in granting leave for judicial review, said the application was not frivolous and overruled the objection by the Attorney-General's Chambers to deny SIS leave.
He added that it was a royal prerogative that could not be subjected to judicial review.
On the fatwa itself, Shamsul argued that it was a formal legal opinion given by Islamic jurists on the shariah.
"Therefore to determine the validity of the fatwa, it must be done by eminent jurists and not by the civil court… but by the shariah court," he said, asking the court to reject the leave application.
Counsel for SIS, Datuk Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, assisted by lawyer Nizam Bashir, submitted that the prerogative power of His Royal Highness was only in assenting to the fatwa, adding that the issue of assent was provided by statute.
He told the court that there was authority from the Federal Court to say that if a fatwa contravened the limits of the Federal Constitution, the fatwa could be challenged.
Malik also said that the fatwa went beyond the ambit of the state list when it included that any material that promoted liberalism and pluralism must be seized.
"This is the power only by the Home Minister under the Printing Presses and Publications Act, and under the Constitution, it falls under the ambit of the federal list."
Malik said the fatwa on SIS could not hold as it was an organisation, and as such, did not profess any religion.
SIS executive director Ratna Othman praised Allah after the decision, and said she was happy that the merits of the judicial review would have a chance to be heard as the fatwa had far-reaching effects.
"We will explore the constitutional grounds on how a fatwa can exceed its jurisdiction from the control of religious affairs within the state."
SIS named the Selangor Fatwa Committee, Selangor Islamic Religious Council (Mais) and the state government as respondents in its judicial review filed on October 31.
In the suit filed at the Kuala Lumpur High Court, SIS sought to nullify the decree and also a declaration that it is an organisation protected under the Companies Act 1965.
The Selangor decree in July this year gazetted SIS, any individual, association or institution that promoted religious liberalism and plurality as being deviant of the teaching of Islam.
In addition, any publication that promoted liberal and pluralistic religious thinking would be declared unlawful and confiscated.
The decree also ordered the Multimedia and Communications Commission to block any website that went against Islamic teachings.
The fatwa also said those who had deviated towards religious liberalism and pluralism needed to repent and return to Islam's path.
The decree was gazetted under Section 111 of the Islamic Administration Enactment (Selangor) 2003.
Ratna said then that SIS was not informed that the movement had been declared unlawful.
Instead, they had found out through the Malaysian Islamic Development Department's website on decrees on October 20.
- TMI

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