Outrage after Malaysian government orders public caning under Sharia law

Religious authorities in the northern Malaysian state of Terengganu have been accused of acting like the Taliban after a sharia court ruled that a 42-year-old father of five would be the first in the state to be caned for being intimate with a woman outside of marriage.

A court on Wednesday ordered a man, a construction worker, to be given six strokes of the cane after he was caught committing khalwator close proximity between unmarried couples, according to local news channel Bernama.

He will be the first person to be caned for khalwat in a religiously conservative state. The Islamist PAS party has ruled Terengganu since 2018 and has been actively lobbying for Islamic law to be elevated to equal weight with civil law.

According to state executive council member Muhammad Khalil Abdul Hadi, the caning will be the first case of public punishment.

Muhammad Khalil said the punishment was in accordance with Islam as well as the state government’s policy of empowering Islamic jurisprudence.

“We will continue to move forward to empower sharia (law) in Terengganu state,” government mouthpiece TRDI.my quoted him as saying on Thursday.