A religious court in Malaysia has sentenced a Singaporean Muslim model to a fine and corporal punishment for drinking a glass of beer in a nightclub.

The penalty, six lashes plus MYR5,000 fine was regarded as "fair" by the Judge who said that the cane is provided for in the law and therefore it is open to the Court to included it in the sentence. He added: The rotan is aimed at making the accused repent and serves as a lesson to Muslims.

The offence was committed by 32 year old Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno. If she does not pay the fine, she will face three months in jail.

Update: Debating Barbaric Punishments

25th July 2009. Based on article from cnews.canoe.ca, thanks to Alan

 A Malaysian woman sentenced to flogging for drinking beer has accepted the Islamic court's order, saying she wants the punishment to be carried out soon, news reports said

I will accept this earthly punishment, the national news agency Bernama quoted her as saying. I want to advise youngsters to learn from my experience, not to repeat my mistake and cause shame to yourself and family.

Based on article from straitstimes.com

Datuk Abdullah Mohd Zain, religious adviser to the Premier, has brushed aside criticisms that an Islamic court ruling to cane a woman for drinking beer is harsh, saying she had broken the law.

Abdullah told The Straits Times that Muslim women leaders who criticised the court's decision did not know that syariah caning is not as brutal as the civil court's corporal punishment. Criticisms are normal, but it is not fair for non-Muslims to criticise the syariah law. The Muslims criticise it because they do not know how the caning is done.

Under an Act on Islam in Malaysia that was passed in 1984, the female offender must sit when being caned. The officer will use a smooth branch or rotan that is slightly thinner than those used to whip men in a civil court punishment. The officer must not raise his hand higher than his shoulder to ensure that the caning is moderate.

But women leaders including Islamic law experts, social activists and politicians condemned the punishment, the first time that a woman would face judicial caning. Women's Aid Organisation executive director Ivy Josiah said: We are mortified that a court would even consider imposing caning on a woman, especially when women are exempted from caning under the penal code.

Kartika, a Singapore permanent resident, was caught by the Islamic authorities for drinking beer while on a holiday with friends in Cherating, Pahang, two years ago. She pleaded guilty last year. She was also fined RM5,000 (S$2,000).

Her father clarified that Kartika was a hospital worker in Singapore, and not a model as reported by the media.

Comment: Nastier and nastier

26th July 2009, thanks to Alan

Nosing around a bit, beginning with a Google search for the poor woman's name, makes this nasty business look curiouser and curiouser, and nastier and nastier.

For instance, her husband was drinking with her. He has identified himself as a Muslim. He isn't getting flogged, and wasn't even charged. He is (1) a bloke, (2) a Singaporean citizen, while his wife is a Malaysian citizen albeit normally resident in Singapore. Some discussion indicates that "Muslim" effectively means ethnic Malay. It probably wouldn't have helped the poor woman if she had said, Not guilty. I'm not a Muslim any more. I think Mohammed was a fraud and the Koran is full of unbelievable shite. In fact, she might have been in even worse doo-doo for "apostasy".

The government spokeswanker, Datuk Nutter Abdullah Mohd Zain, reaches egregious levels of stupidity when he whines that it's not fair for non-Muslims to criticize shariah injustice. I don't need a freaking doctorate in a comparative theology or jurisprudence to recognise a vile, barbarous system when I see it.

I see that there's some debate about whether the woman is or isn't a model. If the judge wants to enjoy a quiet J Arthur over a model being caned, why doesn't he just download a suitable product from one of the many excellent spanking web sites, or even engage the CONSENSUAL services of a lady like Max Mosley's friends.

Incidentally also on the New Straits Times site are two cases of men engaged in sexual activity with under-age girls, neither of whom is getting flogged or even a custodial sentence. South East Asian "justice" needs very big scare quotes.

Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno has become the first woman in Malaysia to be sentenced to a caning after being caught drinking beer in a beach resort.

Shukarno who lives in Singapore with her husband has also paid a fine of £860.

The woman will receive six lashes at a woman's prison next week in what is being viewed as an example of the growing influence of Islamic hardliners on the country. The harsh sentence has provoked anger among women's rights groups who fear it is another sign of the creeping influence of conservative Islam on Malaysian society.

In the northern backwater state of Kalentan ruled by the hardline Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, authorities have decreed that supermarkets must have separate checkout queues for men and women and beaches be segregated. Young couples caught sitting too close together on park benches in the state capital, Kota Baru, are hunted down by the city's moral enforcers and fined up to £285 in Sharia courts.

Kartika was arrested in July last year in a hotel nightclub in the beach resort of Cherating during a raid by the state's religious department and admitted drinking beer.

An Islamic court fined her and ordered her to be caned at Kajang women's prison next week, but spared her a jail term of up to three years.

Kartika has been ordered to report to the jail next Monday, where she will be given a medical check-up to ensure she is fit to receive the punishment. She could then be held for seven days, but will be released immediately after the caning.

Update: inhuman and degrading punishment

21st August 2009. See article from google.com

Human rights group Amnesty International has urged Malaysia not to cane a Muslim model for drinking beer and to abolish the cruel and degrading punishment.

Amnesty said Malaysian authorities should immediately revoke the sentence to cane her and abolish the practice of caning altogether. Caning is a form of cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment and is prohibited under international human rights law," it said in a statement.

Update: Delayed

24th August 2009. See article from edition.cnn.com

The woman who was set to become the first woman caned in Malaysia for drinking beer in public, was inexplicably spared her sentence Monday, her father said.

Authorities had picked up Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno from her father's house Monday morning and were taking her to a prison in the eastern state of Pahang when the van turned around and brought her back.

They sent her back to the house. They said the top official asked them not to bring her to Kuala Lumpur, said Kartika's father, Shukarno Abdul Muttalib.

It was not immediately known whether authorities had dropped the sentence or postponed it. It was also not clear who had ordered Kartika returned.

Update: Postponed

25th August 2009. See article from guardian.co.uk

An official said that Shukarno would still be caned, but that the attorney general's office had advised that the punishment be delayed until after Ramadan – a period of fasting and prayer – for compassionate reasons.

The sentence is not being cancelled, Mohamad Sahfri Abdul Aziz, a state legislator in charge of religious affairs, told the Associated Press.

Update: Caning Malaysia's Reputation

26th August 2009. Based on article from news.bbc.co.uk

A Malaysian court has reportedly ordered a review of the caning sentence given to a woman caught drinking beer. The main judge at Pahang's Islamic court put the caning on hold pending the review, saying the sentence was too extreme, the Star newspaper said.

Analysts say the government fears that the punishment could damage Malaysia's reputation abroad.

According to an article in the Malaysia Star newspaper, and similar comments by women's minister Shahrizat Jalil, the chief judge of Pahang state appeals court has ordered the sentence to be deferred pending the review. Shahrizat Jalil called the verdict excessive, and said it projected a cruel image of Malaysia: The overriding view was that the sentence meted out was too harsh and is not commensurate with the offence.

Prime Minister Najib Razak has urged Kartika to appeal. But instead of doing this, Kartika has asked that her punishment is carried out in public, triggering a debate over the use of Islamic laws in the moderate Muslim country.

Update: Mosque officials to become drinks snitches

26th August 2009. Based on article from islamonline.net

Mosque officials in Selangor, Malaysia's most populated state, have been authorized to arrest Muslims drinking alcohol in public, a move likely to court controversy in the multi-ethnic Asian Muslim heavyweight, the daily Star reported.

These officials have been appointed to assist the Selangor Islamic Religious Council and the Selangor Islamic Religious Department, Selangor Executive Councilor Hasan Ali told reporters.

Under the scheme, imams, muezzins and other mosque officials would be authorized to arrest offenders. They would be first given training on how to enforce the new procedures under Section 18 of the Shari`ah Criminal Procedure Enactment 2003.

Those who would be arrested should not be kept in custody for more than 24 hours, he added: They have to be surrendered to the police or religious authorities within that period.

According to the law, alcohol drinkers would pay a fine of RM3,000 (i.e. $852) or jailed not more than two years. Those caught buying, selling, displaying for sale or storing alcohol could be charged under the same section and fined RM5,000 ($1420) or jailed for not more than three years or both.

The opposition Pan Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), part of a three-party grouping led by Anwar Ibrahim, earlier this month called for the full implementation of an alcohol ban in Selangor.

A Malaysian Islamic court judge who ordered the first female caning in the country two months ago, has sentenced another Muslim to be caned for drinking alcohol.

Abdul Rahman Mohd Yunos, a sharia high court judge in Pahang state, ordered Nazarudin Kamaruddin to be jailed one year and be caned six times, the New Straits Times reported.

Nazarudin, a permanent resident from Indonesia, pleaded guilty to drinking alcohol on August 27 at a restaurant that was raided by officers from the Pahang religious department.

Muslims caught by religious authorities can be jailed three years and given six strokes of a rattan cane on top of a RM5,000 ($1,430) fine.

Nazarudin, who has been in jail since September 2 because he was unable to post bail, said he had financial difficulties and would not be able to pay a fine. His is the first victim in the state to be jailed for consuming alcohol in public.

The judge also accused Nazarudin of dishonouring the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan - which started on August 22 in Malaysia - by not fasting and by consuming alcohol in public. Abdul Rahman said the accused led an aimless life and did not have a steady job.

Carlsberg, well worth a flogging for...probably

The Muslim woman who was sentenced by an Islamic sharia court to be caned for drinking beer has been approached by a movie producer to star in a film on her ordeal.

However, Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno said she will take a decision only after the sentence was carried out.

It is too far ahead. I can't think of anything beyond my punishment at the moment, she was quoted as saying by the Star newspaper.

She was sentenced to be caned but the act was deferred by the Islamic court due to the holy month of Ramadan. She is still awaiting news from the Pahang Religious Department as to when she would face her punishment for drinking beer at a hotel in Cherating last year.

A 'judge' in Malaysia has upheld a court verdict to cane a Muslim woman for drinking beer.

The chief sharia judge of Pahang state ruled that a sharia high court's verdict against Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno was correct and should stay.

If the punishment is carried out, Kartika would become the first Muslim woman to be caned in Malaysia.

Kartika, who pleaded guilty, refused to appeal her sentence and was on the verge of being caned on 24 August. But the punishment was halted at the last minute following an uproar in the media and among rights activists.

Three Malaysian women have been caned by the authorities for having extra-marital sex, say officials.

They are the first women to receive such a sentence under Islamic law in the country. Malaysia's majority Malays are subject to Islamic laws, while the large Chinese and Indian minorities are not.

Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said the punishments had been carried out in a prison outside the capital, Kuala Lumpur, on 9 February. The women were each hit up to six times. One is reported to have since been released from prison.

Update: Flogging any old propaganda

20th February 2010. See article from dailymail.co.uk Thanks to Alan

Three Muslim women who were the first in Malaysia to be caned for having sex outside marriage this morning claimed the punishment was an opportunity for them to repent.

The three women, aged 17-25, said they turned themselves in after feeling guilty for sleeping with their boyfriends before marriage and getting pregnant.

The 17-year-old told reporters that she surrendered to Islamic authorities after her prematurely born child died. She is now serving a six-month prison sentence. I know I have sinned, and I have to be punished. Strangely however, I felt that the caning was not a form of punishment but was an opportunity for me to repent and return to the right path, she said. She has already married her boyfriend, who has also been caned and jailed over the offence.

The other women, who have one young child each, are planning to marry their partners after they are released. The men were also caned for having sex. One woman, aged 25, said she was scared before the caning but knew she deserved the punishment. All three women called on others not to make the same mistake and abstain from sex before marriage.

A Prison Department official confirmed the women's comments, made at a news conference at the women's prison outside Kuala Lumpur to local, government-linked media under the watch of authorities.

It could not be confirmed whether they were speaking voluntarily.

Malaysia appears determined to make an international fool of itself. According to Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, the Women's Minister, is that the country is considering organizing an international conference on caning and whether it is an appropriate punishment for women under Islamic law.

The announcement by Shahrizat comes on the heels of a government statement last week, nine days after the fact, that a shariah court had ordered the caning of three women for adultery. A fourth, far more publicized, is the case of Kartika Dewi Shukarni, a part-time model who was ordered by a shariah court to be caned for drinking beer. The case is still hanging fire while the Regent of Pahang decides how to treat the matter.

As to the caning, in the first place the government ought to organize a conference on whether caning, Malaysia style, is an appropriate punishment for anybody, anywhere, unless for crooked government politicians, of which Malaysia has a surfeit . Although caning is officially outlawed in only 25 countries, it is rare in a lot more, and in very few is it practiced as barbarically — on men — as it is in Malaysia.

One would assume that the purpose of corporal punishment is to cause pain. And when it is done to males in Malaysia and other countries that were once part of the British empire, the damage from the rotan, a thick rattan whip, can be so traumatic that they pass out after one or two strokes. The wounds can take months to heal, at which time the authorities may subject the offender to the rest of his strokes. Offenders have been known to beg for more prison time to escape the rotan. Authorities use only a light rattan stick to hit women on their backs.

So what the caning of the women has done is to show that to much of the world the authorities look like barbarians, while to the rest of it they look like fools for sparing the rod and trying to have it both ways.

The caning of these three women is just the tip of the iceberg, said Donna Guest, Deputy Director of Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific program, in a prepared statement. Since 2002 the Malaysian authorities have caned over 35,000 people, mostly non-Malaysians for immigration offenses.

Reporters Without Borders condemns the censorship and self-censorship which the home affairs ministry has imposed on Malaysia's leading English-language daily, The Star, by issuing it with a warning about an article criticising the caning of three Muslim women under Sharia law.

As one of the country's most widely-read newspapers, The Star should have a free hand to provide its readers with the broadest range of news and views on social issues, Reporters Without Borders said. We urge Prime Minister Abdul Razak to reconsider this decision and to quickly amend the 1984 Publishing and Printing Presses Act, whose licence renewal system denies newspapers the security they need.

In response to the pressure from the government and Muslim groups, the newspaper was forced to publish an apology and withdraw the offending article from its website. Written by managing editor P. Gunasegaram and published in the paper on 19 February, the article, entitled Persuasion, not compulsion, said the sentence of caning passed on 9 February on three Muslim women accused of adultery was disproportionate. It was the first time in years that a Malaysian court has issued such a sentence.

After receiving the home affairs ministry's warning letter, the newspaper refused to publish an article by one of the newspapers contributing columnists, Marina Mahathir , in which she argued that Sharia laws were written by men, not God, and as such were open to debate. She finally posted the column on her blog.

A Malaysian woman sentenced to be caned for drinking beer has had her punishment commuted.

Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarnor had pleaded guilty to the offence under Malaysia's Islamic law and was to have received six strokes of a rattan cane.

But her family said religious officials had overturned the ruling, ordering her to carry out community service instead. Ms Kartika's family was informed by letter that the sultan of Pahang state, where Ms Kartika was arrested for drinking beer in a beachfront hotel in December 2007, had overturned the ruling.

The sultan has decided that the caning sentence will be substituted with a three-week community service at a children's home in Pahang from 2 April, Ms Kartika's father, Shukarnor Mutalib, told the AFP news agency.

The commutation was welcomed by Malaysia's Bar Council, which had called caning: anachronistic and inconsistent with a compassionate society.

A Malaysian man has been sentenced to a year in jail and six strokes of the cane for drinking alcohol in public.

Mohamad Sabri Zulkepli pleaded guilty to consuming alcohol at a shopping mall in February.

Zulkepli had asked to pay a fine and be given fewer lashes. He plans to appeal against his sentence, officials say.

Correspondents say the case is the latest in a string of harsh punishments meted out by Islamic 'judges'.

The accused can use the time spent in jail to reflect on how to lead a better life, 'Judge' Abdul Rahman Mohamad Yunos was quoted as saying by Malaysia's Star newspaper.

A morality crackdown has seen Malaysian Islamic authorities hand out caning and jail sentences for illicit drinking and sex, and launch raids on homes and clubs in the glare of media flashlights.

Despite the highly publicised cases, every weekend Kuala Lumpur's top clubs are packed with fashionably dressed youngsters including Muslim Malays -- many offspring of the nation's elite -- socialising and drinking openly.

I'm a bit more wary after all these cases but it doesn't really affect my mood to go out and party, says Muaz Omar, a civil servant who goes to pubs with friends to watch live band performances. People who drink still do go out because even private parties at home are subjected to raids, there is no longer a safe haven.

We don't accept any behaviour that is not condoned by Islam, Che Mat Che Ali, the head of the Islamic affairs department in Kuala Lumpur, tells AFP.

The department has rounded up nearly 500 individuals in Kuala Lumpur so far this year for offences including drinking and khalwat, or close proximity which bars Muslims from being alone with a member of the opposite sex.

...Read the full article

Malaysian religious authorities have confirmed the caning of three women convicted of having sex outside of marriage.

This marks the first time the Sharia Law sentence was meted out to women in Malaysia. The punishments were carried out earlier this year and each woman was caned six times.

The Sharia laws apply only to native Malays and not the Chinese and Indian minorities who live in the pacific nation.

Malaysian Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said: The punishment is to teach and give a chance to those who have fallen off the path to return and build a better life in future. He said he hoped the punishments would not be viewed in such a way as to defile the purity of Islam.

Malaysia has been campaigning to stop Muslims enjoying Valentine's Day - labelling it a trap that could encourage immoral behaviour.

Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said the celebration of romantic love was not suitable for Muslims.

Several Malaysian states are planning to carry out checks on hotels to stop young couples having premarital sex. Leaflets have been distributed to Muslim university students urging them to avoid Monday's celebration.

The government-run Department of Islamic Development, which handles religious policies, has launched a publicity campaign called Mind the Valentine's Day Trap. Wan Mohamad Sheikh Abdul Aziz, the department's chief, told state media: In reality, as well as historically, the celebration of Valentine's Day is synonymous with vice activities. Islam would reject anything, even from the Eastern culture, if it contravenes the Islamic teachings.

Update: Mass arrests for enjoying life

16th February 2011. See article from bbc.co.uk

Religious police in Malaysia have arrested more than 80 Muslims in an operation to stop them celebrating Valentine's Day.

Officers raided budget hotels in the central state of Selangor and capital, Kuala Lumpur, detaining unmarried Muslim couples who were sharing rooms.

The religious authorities in Malaysia claim Valentine's Day is synonymous with immoral activities.

Those arrested could be jailed for up to two years if convicted.

In Selangor alone, officials said 80 people were detained for khalwat or close proximity - an Islamic law that prevents unmarried Muslims from being alone with someone of the opposite sex.

In the capital, officials detained 16 mainly teenage Muslims found in short time hotels.

Malaysia's Islamic party (PAS) is pressing for more areas of law to be dealt with under an Islamic legal code. PAS officials say they want Islamic law to cover criminal offences as well. The punishments they want would include, among other things, cutting off the hands of thieves and stoning adulterers to death. The party insists the move would not affect non-Muslims. That promise, however, is no longer reassuring for Malaysia's religious minorities.

Some feel Islamic law is already encroaching on their rights.

There are two Malaysias. One for the Muslim majority - the other for Christians, Hindus, Buddhists and non-Muslims.

For example, Malays do not have the freedom to choose their religion. It is written in the constitution that all ethnic Malays must, by definition, be Muslim.

At the same time, other ethnic groups are allowed to worship freely.

Political leaders would have you believe that these two Malaysias barely interact, and therefore do not conflict.

It is true in some cases - but not in others.

...Read the full article