The caning sentence given to a Muslim woman last year for drinking beer was a sign of the slow ‘talibanization’ of Malay society, says an Islamic expert.

The judgment on Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, who was brought to trial in a Syariah (shari’a) Court, was a “human enactment camouflaged as shari’a,” said Professor Shad Saleem Faruqi.

Shad was one of a three-member panel who shared their views after the screening of a documentary, Mencari Kartika (In Search of Kartika) on May 26.

Local NGO, Sisters-in-Islam, a group of Muslim women committed to promoting the rights of women within the Islamic framework, screened the documentary on the first Malaysian Muslim woman to be given the caning sentence.

Kartika was sentenced last July to six strokes of the cane and a fine of 5,000 ringgit (US$1,500) for consuming alcohol at a bar.

In April this year, she was pardoned by the Sultan of Penang state where the offence took place and ordered to perform community service.

“The symbol of Islam is justice. Instead, whipping now is the symbol of Islam,” sociologist professor Noraini Othman, another panelist, told the audience.

A Catholic in the audience, Joe Gomez, told the panel that non-Muslims were told to remain quiet as the Kartika issue was a Muslim affair. “Our opinions don’t seem to matter in Malaysia. What can we do to help out?”

“If the state uses Islam to terrorize the people into silence, then we all have to stand up,” retorted Noraini.

Surveys conducted last year showed that more than 70 percent of respondents supported the caning sentence.

The survey also concluded that the majority of Muslims supported the caning while the majority of non-Muslims disagreed.

Source: UCAN