Kuala Lumpur, January 26: A Malaysian court overturned a government ban on a book about Muslim women that authorities claimed was a misinterpretation of Islam and a threat to public stability, a lawyer said today.
The verdict marks a rare occasion that a publisher has successfully challenged the Home Ministry’s power to block books considered as inappropriate. Dozens of books have been banned in the last few years, often because they contained too much sexual content or were deemed to misrepresent Islam, Malaysia’s official religion.
The Kuala Lumpur High Court ruled yesterday that “Muslim Women and the Challenge of Islamic Extremism’ did not pose any threat to national security, said Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, a lawyer for Sisters in Islam, the Malaysian women’s advocacy group that published the book.
–Agencies