KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 12- G25 spokesperson Datuk Noor Farida Ariffin during her keynote address at the 6th Civil Society Award ceremony urged non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to file lawsuits and complaints with the police who have been defamed by religious agencies.
While addressing G25 spokesperson Datuk Noor Farida Ariffin said, “Any NGO that have been defamed by Malaysian Islamic Strategic Research Institute (IKSIM) and the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) and others — lodge a police report for criminal defamation and sue them for defamation.” In her speech, she claimed that federal religious agencies were “sowing seeds of discord and disharmony” in Malaysia due to their strict interpretation of Islam and their opposition to any Islamic or intellectual discourse.
She also referred to a booklet published by IKSIM, a think-tank under Jakim, which stated that secularism was a threat to Malaysia’s sovereignty and also reportedly stated that the importance of Islam does not rank lower than the Federal Constitution.
Further she said, “Civil society needs to put a stop to this nonsense, before we wake up one day and find ourselves in an Islamic state according to their interpretation of Islam. The narrow interpretation being espoused by these authorities was not only a threat to non-Muslims, but also to Muslims. For them, Islam is like Hotel California, you can go in but you cannot come out.”
Jaringan Kampung Orang Asli Kelantan, a group of indigenous activists who set up a blockade at Gua Musang to prevent logging at their land, won the Civil Society Award by the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall. The two other award winners were the Delineation Action Research Team (DART), a group that promotes fair delineation of constituency boundaries, and Chong Ton Sin, founder of publisher Gerakbudaya.
