Malaysian Taliban

Reporters Without Borders condemns the censorship and self-censorship which the home affairs ministry has imposed on Malaysia's leading English-language daily, The Star, by issuing it with a warning about an article criticising the caning of three Muslim women under Sharia law.

As one of the country's most widely-read newspapers, The Star should have a free hand to provide its readers with the broadest range of news and views on social issues, Reporters Without Borders said. We urge Prime Minister Abdul Razak to reconsider this decision and to quickly amend the 1984 Publishing and Printing Presses Act, whose licence renewal system denies newspapers the security they need.

In response to the pressure from the government and Muslim groups, the newspaper was forced to publish an apology and withdraw the offending article from its website. Written by managing editor P. Gunasegaram and published in the paper on 19 February, the article, entitled Persuasion, not compulsion, said the sentence of caning passed on 9 February on three Muslim women accused of adultery was disproportionate. It was the first time in years that a Malaysian court has issued such a sentence.

After receiving the home affairs ministry's warning letter, the newspaper refused to publish an article by one of the newspapers contributing columnists, Marina Mahathir , in which she argued that Sharia laws were written by men, not God, and as such were open to debate. She finally posted the column on her blog .

Malaysian religious authorities have confirmed the caning of three women convicted of having sex outside of marriage.

This marks the first time the Sharia Law sentence was meted out to women in Malaysia. The punishments were carried out earlier this year and each woman was caned six times.

The Sharia laws apply only to native Malays and not the Chinese and Indian minorities who live in the pacific nation.

Malaysian Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said: The punishment is to teach and give a chance to those who have fallen off the path to return and build a better life in future . He said he hoped the punishments would not be viewed in such a way as to defile the purity of Islam .

Happy Breaking Fast with Bak Kut Teh (a pork dish), aromatic, tasty and appetizing

Bloggers Alvin Tan and Vivian Lee have been charged and imprisoned without bail in Malaysia after they posted a photo joke for ramadan on their Facebook page. They face up to eight years in prison.

The photo in question featured the duo eating pork stew, bah kuh teh, while greeting fasting Muslims for Ramadan. Inevitably easy offence was taken and the might of the state was invoked to exact retribution.

The couple have a bit of history of hassles as they run an erotic blog and a Youtube channel called Sexcussions with Alvivi .

Malaysian authorities have thrown the book at Tan and Lee who have been charged under:

a) Section 5 of the Film Censorship Act 2002 for publishing indecent photographs online.

b) 298A Penal Code for promoting enmity between different groups of religion or race and doing acts prejudicial to maintaining harmony by publishing an offensive Ramadan greeting.

c) Section 4(1) (c) of the 1948 Sedition Act for posting seditious material through the offensive greeting.

Tan and Lee pleaded not guilty to the charges, but will be jailed without bail until their next court date on August 23.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said:

The insolent and impudent act by the young couple who insulted Islam showed that freedom of expression and irresponsible opinion can jeopardise the community.