Mediaeval justice at work in Malaysia as young women are caned for having extra-marital sex

Once again, Islam asserts its claim of the high moral ground by committing Allah-sanctioned violence against women, in Modern, Progressive Malaysia™.

But what is possibly more shocking (or suspicious, depending on your viewpoint) than the barbarity and hypocrisy of the twin-track Sharia legal system was the reaction of a number of purportedly British readers in the comments section of the Daily Mail’s coverage of the story:

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.

Prison authorities caned the women last week after an Islamic Shariah court issued the penalty.

The caning has outraged rights groups and revived speculation that conservative Islamists, who advocate harsh punishment, are gaining influence in the country.

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

Malaysian justice: Prison staff demonstrate to the media how the caning process was done at the Kajang prison outside Kuala Lumpur

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 [reading local news accounts of this story, it is not at all certain whether the men that were supposedly caned were connected to this case - Ed.].

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.

Journalists interview three women who were caned for having sex out of wedlock, at a prison in Kajang . They are first to be caned under the country’s Islamic laws

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.

He said they were reluctant to speak to other media.

It could not be confirmed whether they were speaking voluntarily. request with the department for interviews is pending.

Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin defended the caning this morning, saying it was ‘far lighter’ than what some people might imagine.

‘The punishment is legitimate and in accordance with the law,’ Muhyiddin said.

Human rights groups have slammed the caning, saying it is a cruel and degrading punishment and discriminates against Muslim women because Malaysian civil law – which applies to non-Muslims – bans the caning of women.

The women, who were fully clothed and sitting on a stool, received between four and six strokes with a thin rattan stick on the back, lasting a few minutes.

Another woman, Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, is still waiting to be caned for drinking beer in public.

Her case received international attention last year when she became the first woman slated to receive a caning penalty.

But the punishment was deferred indefinitely amid a public outcry.

Caning of men for such offences as rape, drug smuggling and staying illegally in the country is common.

It is administered with a thick rattan stick on bare buttocks, causing severe pain and leaving scars.

Malaysia has a two-tier justice system.

Shariah courts deal with personal matters for Muslims, who account for about two-thirds of the country’s 28 million people, while non-Muslims – many of whom are ethnic Chinese and Indians – go to civil courts.

While this story is shocking and the punishments meted out to these young women deplorable, we are accustomed at this site to reporting on the creeping Sharia in Malaysia and other South East Asian countries.

What shocked us far more however, was the reaction in the comments section of the Daily Mail. Not known for being backward about coming forward, several Mail readers were surprisingly supportive of the canings. Here’s a selection of extracts from the comments:

“Although it’s a little cruel that this story has hit world news, sometimes it pays to give children a spank now & then”

“As long as the law is applied equally to men and women, and no SERIOUS injury (or death) occurs, i do not see what the problem is”

“They are the rules that apply there. Harsh? Yes they are harsh but it appears to work.”

“Let them get on with their way of life.When in Rome”

“Who are we to judge other people cultures? Is it not breathtakingly arrogant to believe our culture is superior to another culture?”

In answer to the final commenter and their mealy-mouthed regurgitation of a favourite cultural relativist cliché – no – it is not arrogant to believe that our (Western) culture is superior to another. Western culture, for all its imperfections, is superior by an order of magnitude to the misogynistic, punishment and violence-oriented Seventh Century dogma that is Islam.

Either the Peaceful Religionists at MPACUK, Hizb ut-Tahrir and their astroturfing teams have been working overtime, or  New Labour have, in addition to importing millions of Islamic immigrants into Britain during their seemingly endless 12 years in office – and turning parts of our country into places almost indistinguishable from Islamabad or Dhaka –  succeeded in desensitising and multiculturalising the British lower middle class to Islam just nicely.

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