Scores of officers fanned out across budget hotels in central Selangor state before dawn on Jan 1, knocking on doors and detaining unmarried Muslim couples who were sharing rooms, said Hidayat Abdul Rani, a spokesman for the Selangor Islamic Department.
The detained, mostly students and young factory workers, are expected to be charged with “khalwat,” or “close proximity,” which under Malaysia’s Islamic Shariah law is described as couples not married to each other being alone together in a private place.
“We chose to have this large-scale operation on New Year’s Day because many people are known to commit this offense while celebrating such a major holiday,” Hidayat said.
In Selangor, “khalwat” carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison and a fine.
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
New Year in Malaysia
52 unmarried Malaysian Muslim couples face jail for hotel liaisons
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I really do blame the bloody fricking Saudi oil money bankrolling the lunatics they export into Asia for these trends of increasing rigidity and intolerance in Southeast Asian Islam.
I sound like an old man pontificating about the good old days but it is true at least from my recollections that Malays were a lot more liberal when I was a youngster. I know this, having attended a Malay primary school in years 1 and 2 and having Malay classmates in the Catholic schools I attended in Malaysia from Year 3 up to Year 9 when we moved to Australia. My father in turn says the same thing x2 and talks about how they were even more relaxed about their faith in his day (he lived next to a Malay village) with Malay friends coming over and eating his family's food, etc.
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