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Posted Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Malaysia postpones whipping of woman who drank beer

By Thomas Fuller

BANGKOK — Malaysian authorities gave a last-minute, temporary reprieve on Monday to a Muslim woman sentenced to whipping for drinking alcohol in a case that has stirred passions over the increasingly strict enforcement of Islamic law in recent years in the multicultural country.

Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, a 32-year-old nurse who confessed to violating Islamic laws by drinking beer in a hotel lobby last year, was detained by prison authorities on Monday but was then quickly released. The authorities said Ms. Kartika’s punishment — which would be the first whipping for a woman under the country’s Islamic laws — would be carried out in September, after the Muslim holy month of Ramadan was over.

“The sentence remains,” said Mohamed Sahfri Abdul Aziz, the chief of religious affairs in Pahang State, according to Malaysian media. “She has been released but only temporarily.”

The case has drawn criticism from liberal-leaning Muslims as well as the country’s Chinese and Indian minorities, who fear that the country is drifting away from its secular foundations.

“We’ve allowed this huge Islamic bureaucracy to grow over the last three decades,” Amir Muhammad, an author and filmmaker, said in a telephone interview from Kuala Lumpur, the capital. “The laws were there to show that this is something we disapprove of. But people did not expect them to be enforced that rigidly.”

Ms. Kartika has drawn sympathy among many Muslims in Malaysia, who make up slightly more than half the population of 27 million, because she has repeatedly apologized and offered to have her caning carried out in public as a warning to other Muslims.

On paper, Islamic laws are strict in Malaysia: Muslims can be arrested and punished for snacking during the daylight hours of fasting during Ramadan, being in “close proximity” to someone from the opposite sex who is not their spouse, and drinking alcohol. But enforcement of Islamic law has been haphazard and many Muslims flout the laws with impunity.

“The basic principle is that, if you don’t flaunt it publicly, you can get away with a lot,” Mr. Amir said.

But the scope of Islamic laws appears to have widened in Malaysia over the past few years. Muslims have been prevented from converting to other religions, officials have barred Muslims from working in restaurants or convenience stores that carry alcohol — although this policy has not been fully carried out — and religious authorities have questioned whether Muslims should be allowed to practice yoga. When laws are enforced, Malaysians often complain that the elite are exempted.

Malaysia’s Islamic laws, which cover marriage, divorce and a specific range of issues related to religious customs, apply only to Muslims. Non-Muslims are subject to the country’s civil laws, which Malaysia inherited from Britain. Foreign Muslim tourists visiting the country, however, are subject to Islamic laws, according to Pawancheek Marican, partner at the law firm Wan Marican, Hamzah & Shaik and a part-time professor of Islamic studies.

“Among Muslim scholars we are not happy with the way the sentence has been meted out,” Mr. Pawancheek said. “But no one is questioning the law.”

The judge should have spared the rod for Ms. Kartika, Mr. Pawancheek said, because she is a first-time offender who has admitted her guilt and has already paid a fine of 5,000 ringgit, or about $1,400.

Whipping is a common punishment in Malaysia, especially for illegal aliens caught in the country.

Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company. Reprinted from The New York Times, International, of Tuesday, August 25, 2009.
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