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Kota Baru Municipal Council #fundie news.asiaone.com

[Note: Kota Baru is the capital of Kelantan state which is governed by the Islamist party PAS]

Shop in Malaysia fined for 'sexy' watch ads

PETALING JAYA - A non-Muslim watch retailer has been summoned by the Kota Baru Municipal Council (MPKB) over two "sexy" posters, including one of actress Aishwarya Rai - an "offence" he has supposedly committed more than 10 times since the 1990s.

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Swee Cheong Watch & Pen Co owner Lee Kum Chuan said he was ordered to pay fines even before he started operating the shop in Aeon Mall - which opened in April. He runs two other similar outlets at KB Mall and Tesco in Kota Baru.

"When I went to MPKB to apply for a business permit for the new shop (at Aeon Mall), I was told to settle the old fines for the same offence committed in KB Mall.

"I was hit with a total RM2,000 (S$668.74) in fines but the amount was reduced to RM400. I had to pay the sum before I could get the new permit," said Lee, adding that each time he had to pay several hundred ringgit in fines for about 10 times since the 1990s.

MPKB enforcement officers raided his shop in Aeon Mall at 3.40pm on Monday.

Lee was ordered to take down the posters, one showing the photograph of the famous Bollywood star and the other of a couple of models, by Aug 1. The outfits in the posters were deemed too sexy by the council.

"The posters were supplied by our manufacturers," said Lee.

According to MPKB's terms of business permits, owners are not allowed to display sexy photographs at their shops.

Kelantan MCA [Malaysian Chinese Association] secretary Datuk Lua Choon Hann said what was happening on the ground proved that PAS was merely paying "lip service" when it said that hudud laws would not affect non-Muslims.

Lau also pointed out that four years ago, the council had taken action against hairdressers in Kota Baru for attending to clients of a different gender.

"PAS has proved yet again that its repeated claims that the hudud enactment will have no bearing on non-Muslims are nothing but mere fallacy," he said in a statement yesterday.

He said MCA would prevent at all cost the Private Member's Bill to amend the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 355, to enhance punitive powers of the syariah courts, from being passed in Parliament.

"Based on the summonses issued by local councils (in Kelantan), MCA wants to raise awareness of the motives to remove clauses in the Federal Constitution that protect the rights of non-Muslims and Muslims against punitive criminal actions based on religious precepts," he said.

Lua noted that the syariah criminal code passed in Aceh last year was applicable even to non-Muslims.

"This includes public whipping of even non-Muslims caught selling and consuming alcohol, gambling or committing adultery."

[Unidentified man] #fundie news.asiaone.com

A 60-year-old man, who had sex with his daughter, told religious department officers that incest was permissible because she had taken a vow of slavery, Harian Metro reported.

The tabloid said the man and his daughter, in her 30s, were caught by the Federal Territory Islamic Department (Jawi) officers at a hotel in Jalan Putra, Kuala Lumpur, at 1am on Wednesday.

The man was in shorts while his daughter was naked under the sheets when the officers raided the room.

"The man brazenly said his partner was his daughter who lived in Medan, Indonesia, with his second wife, who is an Indonesian," a source was quoted by the newspaper.

"The officers believe the father and daughter had already had sex based on condoms and sex pills found in the room."

During interrogation, the man said he slept with his daughter because it was "permissible" according to religion.

He claimed that his religious teacher in Indonesia had told him that the daughter only needed to recite a vow of slavery three times and she would be "halal" to have sex with her family members if she allowed it.

The case is still under investigation and the man is currently out on bail.