Latest news with #ZaidMalek
South China Morning Post
4 days ago
- General
- South China Morning Post
In Malaysia, LGBTQ sexual health workshop probe sparks free speech row
Civil society groups are challenging a police investigation into an LGBTQ sexual-health workshop in Malaysia , rejecting claims that it could offend Islam or threaten public order. Advertisement While Malaysia is secular and multicultural, Islam is the state religion, with Islamic authorities empowered to regulate Muslim affairs and enforce religious mores through the sharia court system. Selangor police chief Hussein Omar Khan on Saturday said the closed-door workshop, which was slated for mid-June but has since been indefinitely postponed, was being investigated under the Penal Code for causing 'disharmony or ill will' on religious grounds – as well as under the Communications and Multimedia Act, a law often used to restrict online expression. Critics called the police action another example of overreach by authorities and warned against the criminalisation of public-health efforts for a marginalised community. Swatch LGBTQ Pride watches were seized in Malaysia in 2023. Photo: Swatch 'The fact that Islam is the official religion does not authorise the government to go on a witch hunt against events which allegedly infringe the tenets of Islam,' Zaid Malek, director of Lawyers for Liberty, a human rights advocacy group, said on Sunday.
Malaysiakini
5 days ago
- Politics
- Malaysiakini
No legal grounds to probe LGBTQ+ workshop, says LFL
Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) urged the police to stop their investigation against PSM Youth over its LGBTQ+ health awareness workshop. In a statement today, LFL director Zaid Malek claimed police had no legal basis to probe the event and regarded the investigation as amounting to a serious abuse of power by the authority. This followed Selangor police chief Hussein Omar Khan's statement yesterday, who said they have launched an investigation under Section 298A of the Penal Code, which criminalises...
