So much for the notion that Malaysia -- or was it Indonesia? -- is the great representative of "liberal" Islam. "Malaysian transvestites appeal sentence," from the Age, July 28:
Four transvestites arrested in a raid on a beauty pageant have appealed a one-week jail sentence imposed by a Malaysian Islamic court for dressing as women.What, no stoning involved?Islamic officials last week detained 16 transvestites competing in the "Miss Universe Asia 2008" contest at a beach resort hotel in the north-eastern state of Kelantan, which is ruled by the fundamentalist PAS party.
PAS, which has ambitions of turning Malaysia into a theocratic state under Islamic rule, has made headlines for banning skimpy clothes and enforcing laws on separate male and female queues in shops.
Mohamad Abdul Aziz, chief assistant director of enforcement in the state, told AFP that four transvestites were found guilty by the Islamic Sharia court.
"Four of them were charged in the Sharia court Sunday for wearing female outfits. The court found them guilty and imposed a seven-day jail sentence and a fine of 1,000 ringgit ($A325)," he said.
"But they appealed against the jail sentence and the court freed them on bail."Mohamad said one transvestite was released because "he wore a Malay traditional outfit".
"The other 11 who were wearing evening gowns will be charged on August 24. They are also on bail," he added.
Mohamad said the beauty contest attracted many participants because the first prize was a trip to Indonesia's island resort of Bali. He said it was the first time that authorities had made such a mass arrest in the state.
Mohamad said another group of 50 transvestites who were preparing to join the competition managed to escape arrest. About 300 people were at the hotel to watch the event.
The New Straits Times reported that most contestants were teachers and bank employees.
This is sufficiently bizarre an event as to be disqualified, in the views of many who otherwise are quite exercised by Islam, from being considered as an intolerable example, prompted by Islam, of a travesty of justice.
For something that is supposed to be ordained by Allah, the sharia seems to vary considerably from place to place. In Malaysia the sharia court comes down heavily on transvestites. But in Afghanistan and Pakistan, it seems to see nothing wrong with the "dancing boys" and their patrons.
You know, you just can't make this stuff up.
Which is more dangerous, dar al transvestite, or dar al- Islam?
Humans give in to all kinds of nutty compulsive behaviors, almost all of them offensive to Islam.
The behaviors not offensive to Allah, are dangerous to dar al-harb, and its offshoot transvestitism.
They are fortunate that they were not accused of being homosexual and hung...
Whatever one thinks of transvestites, they are usually harmless.
Whatever one thinks of muslims, they are usually harmful.
I don't get Hugh's demurrer in the comment up above. No person who believes in a free society would believe in arresting men who wish to dress as women in some "pageant" that otherwise involves no crimes. The arrests show the fanatical puritanical tendencies of Muslims.
Also, stories like this could have the good effect of waking up the kinds of liberals who get "exercised" by anything that goes against gay rights and the rights of non-conformist freaks in general.
Where's Barney Frank on this issue..?
Do transvestites not have Human Rights?
Where's Shamnesty and HRW???
They're quite willing to throw a few trannies under the bus from what I can see...
I bet none of our journos will ever ask obama his opinion on this matter..
All things considered, I'd consider a week's lockup as penalty for public transvestism to represent considerable progress in an Islamic context. Beats raping little girls and then hanging them a couple decades later on trumped up charges.
Other than that, I agree with DenverRodeo. While one may, for the sake of ones own society, lament a culture that patronizes such pagents, that's very different from accepting the prosecution of men who for whatever reason get their jollies from dressing up as women, but not committing any crimes. I see where Hugh is coming from, but if we are going to accept the persecution by Mohammedans of one group, what's to prevent others from endorsing, say, the persecution of Hindus in Malaysia - which in the eyes of monotheistic Christians, may be just as justified?
The participants and staff of the event must have known they weren't in any danger of execution or lengthy prison sentences.
What I can't figure out is why anyone would want to go to Bali...
So can we say Boys will Be Boys?
Bali is cheap, and apparently the food's pretty good, and the scenery, plus the historical Hindu stuff and allathat...
But it seriously irks me that people actually wanna see tranny Malays. No, seriously, what are they smoking?
Tranny Thais, maybe. But Malays? Hell, no!
My comment was in the main prompted by my desire to find an excuse to use the fixed phrase "travesty of justice" because in Italian, the word for "transvestite" is "travesti."
No wonder this is happening in Malaysia. Their leader is a sworn enemy of the West. They jail someone for sodomy and people think this is shocking? Not at all.
Beauty is not compatible with islam.
Muslim 'morality' appears to be a. hypocritical and superficial and b. situational.
A poster above has already mentioned the 'dancing boys', dressed up as girls, who provide entertainment inside Taliban hideouts, behind closed doors, in Afghanistan.
Hypocrisy at its most blatant.
Women's dress is also regularly adopted for getaway purposes.
I seem to recall, also, from Pakistan, after the siege of the Red Mosque, that one of the jihadists attempted to escape by donning womens' dress, but was caught because he was the wrong shape.
I also recall, quite recently, a case in the UK of a Muslim, wanted by the counter-jihad Infidel police, being assisted to escape by his Muslim fiance who fitted him out in burqa, niqab...and handbag.
(It didn't mention what she did about great big masculine feet and hairy ankles...a shave job? - frilly pink socks? - stockings? - boat-sized stilettoes?).
Yo, AA, hate to break it to ya, but those sodomy laws you're talking about? Pretty much lifted from British common law, buddy.
Australia only decriminalised homosexuality ~40 years ago, give or take, iirc.
Iran? They kill you for that, man...
Our PM is not the best, but then compared to TAR our first PM, it's kinda hard to match.