'SEX ON CAMELS' cleric Harussani now says men can only beat their wives with HANKIES

KUALA LUMPUR - Islam prohibits men from abusing their wives and only permits a husband to hit his spouse with a handkerchief, Perak Mufti Tan Sri Harussani Zakaria said today.

The Islamic scholar also labelled as “kurang ajar” the man who allegedly slapped his female partner on the head at the Kota Kinabalu airport Monday several times until she cried, a common Malay term that means “rude”.

“In the hadiths, the Prophet says ‘beat with a handkerchief’; it’s not to hurt her,” Harussani told Malay Mail Online.

“So this man who beat his wife in front of people is not obeying the law of Islam. I think he doesn't know anything about the law of Islam,” the Muslim cleric added.

Harussani said according to Surah An-Nisa (verse 34) in the Quran, a man can admonish his wife if she is “disobedient”, then refuse to share the marital bed, and if she still remains disobedient, he can beat her “lightly with the purpose of admonition”.

The scholar stressed, however, that Prophet Muhammad has interpreted the “beating” as one that cannot be carried out with anything more than a handkerchief.

Harussani Zakaria

“You cannot hit the face, the stomach. You can’t cause hurt or scars,” said Harussani.

The alleged assault at the aerobridge in the Kota Kinabalu airport went viral on social media after documentary filmmaker Beatrice Leong posted a photograph of the couple on Facebook and complained about how no one intervened except for her.

In her post, Leong said that some told her not create trouble when she told the man off for beating his tudung-clad partner while they were boarding the Kota Kinabalu-Kuala Lumpur flight on Malindo Air Monday.

Malindo Air told Malay Mail Online yesterday that it had no right to prevent the man from boarding the plane, pointing out that his partner did not report the alleged assault to crew members and that the incident did not disturb other fellow passengers. - Malay Mail