Now Abim goes after Shafee under syariah

Muslim youth movement says prosecutor must be hauled up for qazaf in talking about Anwar

KUALA LUMPUR: Moves to indict Umno lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah under syariah law has strengthened with The Muslim Youth Movement (Abim) backing claims that he is guilty of the Islamic crime of qazah.

Shafee has been criticised for making revelations at public ceramahs about the closed-door court testimony against opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim during his trial on a sodomy charge.

Abim’s president Amidi Abdul Manan disputed Islamic affairs minister Jamil Khir Baharom’s defence of Shafee, saying that scholars hold that unsubstantiated accusations of sodomy are considered qazaf in syariah law.

“Any discussion about the matter outside of court not for the purpose of a trial is qazaf, if no four witnesses are produced (to substantiate the accusation),” he was quoted as saying today. “(His revelations during an anti-Anwar roadshow) only involves one side of the case and is aimed at shaming someone, an act which is condemned by Islam,” Amidi said, according to Malaysiakini.

The accusation of qazaf was first brought up by preacher Wan Ji Wan Hussin, who made a complaint to the Selangor Islamic affairs department about Shafee disclosing graphic details of the alleged sex act between Anwar and his aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan.

Jamil Khir had said those citing qazaf should study the law, but Amidi said today that all four Islamic schools of thoughts agreed that the act of sodomy is the same as illicit sex between heterosexuals, and the same rules apply.

He said that Shafee’s roadshow was professionally unethical for a lawyer, and un-Islamic, and therefore he should be investigated for qazaf. “Our call is not limited to the Anwar case but to any case which involves sex exposes. This is something immoral and it is a crime,” he said.

Amidi said that even if currently enacted syariah law does not explicitly state “sodomy”, the matter should be decided by the courts and in a public debate in the media.

He also called for the definition for illicit sex to be amended to include sodomy.