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Malaysia’s PM-in-waiting not at odds with view that LGBTI acts are ‘forbidden’

Written by gaytourism

A Malaysian politician widely tipped to be the country’s next prime minister has said that his wife’s statement that LGBTI acts are ‘forbidden’ under Islam does not conflict with his own views.

Anwar Ibrahim was discussing a statement by his wife and current deputy prime minister, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

Last month Wan Azizah said that LGBTI acts were haram according to Islamic doctrine.

‘What she said precisely was that the sexual act is haram, and that is not disputed in any Islamic text or religious texts,’ Anwar said on the Al Jazeera show UpFront.

‘I don’t see a contradiction between my views and hers on this.’

Earlier this month, rights activist and daughter of the current prime minister, Marina Mahathir, publically criticised Wan Azizah over her statement that LGBTI rights are haram.

Support for repealing Section 377A

However, Anwar also said he was in support of repealing Section 377A, a law from the British colonial-era which bans ‘carnal intercourse against the order of nature’

The statue effectively criminalizes homosexuality in Malaysia. Its predecessor, Section 377, was repealed in India earlier this month.

‘This is not only archaic, it is British colonial laws, introduced in India and replicated in Malaysia. It is completely unjust because one can be just accused, and without any proper evidence or, in my case clearly,’ the Malay Mail reported Anwar saying.

‘The laws must be amended to ensure there’s justice in the process and is not a matter of sexual orientation,’ he added.

Anwar was imprisoned twice for sodomy under Section 377A, charges he has always vehemently denied and claimed were politically motivated by the previous government.

Escalating tensions

The dispute between rights activists and Islamic groups over LGBTI rights in Malaysia have become increasingly vocal and heated in recent months.

The government, which was elected on a largely progressive-reformist platform, has been criticized for reacting with vague and often conflicting responses, thereby appeasing neither side.

Tensions escalated in August after the minister for religious affairs ordered the removal of the portraits of two LGBTI rights activists holding the Malaysian national flag from a photography exhibition, which caused an outcry from rights activists.

Later that month, police raided a gay club in Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur for the first time in the establishment’s 30-year history.

Earlier this month, two women were caned in the conservative state of Terengganu for same-sex sexual relations.

Though Malaysia’s prime minister Mahathir Mohammed has said that the caning went against the benevolence of Islam, earlier this week he said that Malaysia cannot accept LGBTI rights or marriage equality.

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