Amnesty condemns caning 'epidemic' in Malaysia

This headline versus Islam Online's ‘Caned’ Malaysian Women Support Penalty headline.

CAIRO – Regretting their actions, the first Malaysian women to be caned for extramarital affairs say that their penalty would help fight illicit behaviour in the Muslim-majority country.

"I deeply regret my actions,” one of the women, 17, told the New Straits Times on Friday, February 19. [..]

Islam Online is meant to be a moderate Islamic journal but appears to give its support to the outdated Shari'a punishment of flogging for personal individual choice ~ it goes on:

Advocacy groups have criticized the caning as a proof on what they describe as “Islamization” of the country.

“The public and world community no longer needs to fear caning as a punishment under the Shari`ah because it is not cruel but instead educates the offenders,” Mohd Isa responded to the criticism.

Take a look at the video below obtained by Amnesty International showing the brutality of a typical caning session in Malaysia. And although these Muslim women were caned fully clothed the possibly 35,000 men who have been caned have not been ~ they have been shackled to a harness and whipped until they bleed.


WASHINGTON (AFP) — Amnesty International on Wednesday urged Malaysia to end a caning "epidemic," saying that authorities have meted out the punishment to thousands of men in addition to the high-profile case of three women.

Malaysian authorities said Wednesday that they had caned three women for having extramarital sex in violation of Islamic law, a first in the Muslim-majority country.

But Amnesty International said the case was the "just the tip of the iceberg" and that Malaysia often caned men for routine offenses.

Citing Malaysian authorities, the London-based human rights group said authorities caned more than 35,000 people -- mostly non-Malaysians -- for immigration violations since 2002.

"These thousands of cases point to an epidemic of caning in Malaysia," said Donna Guest, the group's deputy Asia-Pacific director.

"The Malaysian government needs to abolish this cruel and degrading punishment, no matter what the offense," she said in a statement.

The latest caning case will fuel a debate over rising "Islamization" in the ethnically diverse nation, where authorities last year sentenced a mother-of-two to six strokes of the cane for drinking beer in a nightclub.