PAS vice-president Idris Ahmad is pushing for public support of an anti-LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) taskforce.
This comes a day after Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin urged Asean to take a tougher stance against hate speech, including on religion, gender, and sexual orientation.
The taskforce, as revealed by de facto Religious Affairs Deputy Minister Ahmad Marzuk Shaary, will handle issues related to Muslim LGBTs.
The taskforce, comprising 20 members from various organisations, first met last December, Marzuk was quoted as saying by New Straits Times yesterday.
Marzuk also revealed details of planned amendments to Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act (Act 355), including making gender change a specific offence for Muslims.
"Secondly, social media content related to all acts of the opposite sex deemed indecent and obscene will also be placed as one of the types of Syariah online offences," he said.
He gave an example, where under Federal Territory's Syariah law, a religious officer can't take action against a transwoman simply for being a trans.
"The officer needs to prove that the 'mak nyah' is in a public place and was there for some immoral purposes.
"In this issue, our legal aspect is a little behind for if the immoral behaviour of the group is uploaded to social media, it still does not count as a public place," Marzuk said.
Commenting on the taskforce today, Idris (photo, above) said it was a commendable proactive move to "guide" LGBTs, besides strengthening and improving Syariah laws.
"We need to strengthen existing laws, as LGBT activists and icons are promoting a toxic lifestyle openly through social media.
"It must be understood, that strengthening these laws does not mean opening up space for hatred, but it must be done in an effort to prevent the normalisation of LGBT from becoming a culture in our society that can lead to the collapse of the family institution," the PAS vice-president said.
Idris, who is also a senator, hoped that the government's efforts to handle the LGBT will get public support so that Malaysia remains "clean" from any "uncivilised" elements.
PAS women’s chief Nuridah Mohd Salleh, earlier, said that there was no contradiction between the party's stance on LGBT and Muhyiddin's stance against hate speech.
These amendments to Act 355 are an "act of love" to "save" the LGBT from gender confusion and sin, she said.
A rights activist has said that if Muhyiddin is serious about tackling hate speech, he must start with his own administration, of which PAS is a key member. - Mkini
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