Marina: Call me a moderate and I’ll sue
“The leaflets also slammed Comango for calling for the freedom to renounce Islam; the protection of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual (LGBT) rights; the removal of Malay privileges; the freedom to embrace Syiah [Shia] teachings; and the right for Catholics to refer to God as ‘Allah’, among others.”
Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir, the daughter of the former Malaysia Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed and a prominent columnist and activist, is threatening to sue a Muslim group for defamation for saying she supports such things.
Yet in the West we’re told that only greasy Islamophobes would believe that Islam has a death penalty for apostasy, or denies LGBT rights, or mandates second-class status for non-Muslims. How odd that Marina Mahathir seems not only not to have gotten the memo, but to be enraged that anyone would think she has.
“MARINA gets tough with ISMA: 7 days to say sorry or I SUE!,” from the Malaysia Chronicle, November 23:
KUALA LUMPUR “” Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir has issued a legal ultimatum to Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (ISMA), promising to haul the Muslim activist group to court unless it retracts allegedly false and “defamatory” claims against her by next week.
The Malay Mail Online understands that Marina had through her lawyers recently sent out a letter of demand to ISMA and its office-bearers over the group’s statements that had purportedly cast serious doubts on her “integrity and honesty”.
The letter claims that ISMA”s allegedly groundless statements were intended to smear the reputation of Marina, a prominent activist who is also the eldest daughter of former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Marina’s 4 demands
In the letter of demand (LoD, Marina’s lawyers listed four demands that ISMA must fulfill, including a confirmation on whether the group stands by its allegations.
One of the demands states that ISMA must give a satisfactory explanation of the reason and the grounds for the group’s attempt to link Marina to local human rights coalition Coalition of Malaysian NGOs in the Universal Periodic Review Process (Comango)”s campaign.
ISMA is also required to fully retract its defamatory claims and publish an apology based on Marina’s terms in its own website and Facebook page, on news portals The Malay Mail Online and The Malaysian Insider, as well as in two Malay dailies, Sinar Harian and Utusan Malaysia.
ISMA must also give Marina a written assurance and undertake to refrain from further publishing the defamatory statements or make similar statements against her, the letter said.
According to the LoD dated November 19, ISMA must fulfil these demands within seven days from the letter’s date or face a court case.
ISMA’s ‘misdeeds’
Earlier, the letter traced ISMA”s allegedly defamatory statements, where the group was said to have distributed 70,000 leaflets that had featured Marina’s photograph and named her as a purported “dalang” or mastermind of Comango, which ISMA had claimed was composed of 54 “anti-Islam” non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
In the leaflets reportedly distributed on November 8 in mosques throughout the country, the Islamist activist group named several non-governmental organisations including Sisters in Islam (SIS) as supporting Comango.
The leaflets also slammed Comango for calling for the freedom to renounce Islam; the protection of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual (LGBT) rights; the removal of Malay privileges; the freedom to embrace Syiah teachings; and the right for Catholics to refer to God as “Allah”, among others.
In her response reported two days later, Marina described ISMA”s allegation that she was one of the masterminds behind Comango as “wholly untrue”, stating that she was not involved in the Comango process despite being a board member of Sisters in Islam.
“Therefore I view this allegation by ISMA as defamatory and demand that ISMA and its office bearers withdraw it immediately with a public clarification in all media, including social media, on my terms. Failure to do so will result in my taking legal action against them,” Marina wrote in a brief statement then….