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THE Federal Court today quashed the 2014 fatwa against NGO Sisters in Islam (SIS) that decreed the organisation as deviant by the Selangor Islamic Religious Council (MAIS).
The Federal Court, on Aug 21, 2023, granted leave to SIS and its founder, Zainah Mahfoozah Anwar, to proceed with an appeal against a decision by the Court of Appeal which had dismissed their bid to annul a fatwa issued by the Selangor Fatwa Committee.
Also present were the Chief Justice of Sabah and Sarawak, Tan Sri Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim and Federal Court Judges Tan Sri Nallini Pathmanathan, Datuk Abu Bakar Jais and Datuk Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil.
The fatwa, gazetted by the Selangor government on 31 July 2014, declared that SIS Forum, any individual and group that practices deviant liberalism and pluralism deviates from the teachings of Islam.
The fatwa also stated that any publication containing liberal and plural views on Islam should be banned and confiscated and ordered the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to censor social websites that are contrary to Islamic teachings and Islamic law.
Tengku Maimun said in his judgment, however, that the fatwa was valid insofar as it referred to ‘any individual who adheres to the doctrine of liberalism and religious pluralism is deviant and deviates from the teachings of Islam.
He said it was also valid insofar as it referred to ‘any individual who adheres to the ideology of liberalism and religious pluralism should repent and return to the path of Islam’.
The SIS Forum, its founder, Zainah Mahfoozah Anwar, and former minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Zaid Ibrahim appealed the Court of Appeal’s judgment which ruled on the High Court’s decision of 27 August 2019 dismissing their judicial review by ruling that the issue of fatwas falls within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Syariah Court.
The respondents in the final appeal were the Selangor State Fatwa Committee, the Selangor Islamic Religious Council (MAIS) and the Selangor State Government
Previously, on March 14, 2023, the Court of Appeal had dismissed SIS’s appeal to overturn the fatwa, which had declared the group deviant and accused it of straying from true Islamic teachings.
SIS filed a judicial review application on October 31, 2014, seeking a court order to revoke the fatwa. — TMR
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