A university lecturer has defended the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (Jakim)’s anti-LGBT pamphlets, criticising English news portals and feminist NGOs for not updating themselves with the “latest” information.

Rafidah Hanim Mokhtar, deputy dean (academic and research) of Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia’s (Usim) medicine and health science faculty, said English portals and feminist NGOs have a penchant for criticising Islamic rulings out of “shallow understanding of scientific reports”.

“They seem to be lagging behind when it comes to facts.

"So overzealous are they in defending the rights of minority sexual preferences that they dismiss recent data showing that no matter what you do, with condoms or not, the fact remains that anal penetration carries the second highest rate of spread of HIV after blood transfusion,” she said in her Facebook posting yesterday.

Rafidah ( right ), who is also Wanita Isma information chief, pointed out that Sisters in Islam (SIS) had quoted an eight-year report by the Health Ministry and the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) which stated that the highest transmission of HIV was from husband to housewives.

“SIS is driving home the wrong message altogether - that we shouldn't be worried about the transmission by homosexuality - that the kind of lifestyle would not in any way affect women, because homosexuals, by their definition, is strictly a man's problem.”

She said a recent report by the Global AIDS Response Progress in 2012 states that sexual transmission of HIV in 2011 was responsible for more than half of the newly reported HIV infections.

“Some homosexuals do get married (to women). And it may affect the wives as well. Homosexuals are at 18 times more risk of getting the virus.

“We abhor both homosexual and promiscuous heterosexual relations from both the religious and health point of view,” she said.

Defending Jakim's leaflets on gays

Jakim had distributed pamphlets citing an unnamed research about gay people in Kuala Lumpur.

Among claims made are that homosexuals experience "considerably higher level of mental illness and substance abuse" and "are less likely to be sexually faithful to a partner".

The English language pamphlets titled '10 Myths about Homosexuality', bearing Jakim's name, also said people cannot be born gay and sexual orientation can be fixed.

Defending Jakim, Rafidah said a study by researchers from Universiti Malaya’s media department found that 'Jakim has conferred striking benefits in curtailing the spread of HIV/AIDS infection through its publication of manual of HIV/AIDS in Islam and premarital screening of HIV infection'.

“Do we gamble the health of our nation, for the sake of defending a lifestyle that is condemned by religions? Where are the limits of human rights?” she added.

Stressing that condoms for homosexuals were not really effective, Rafidah said that despite having a good health intervention promotion among homosexuals in the United States, the rate of HIV infections among homosexuals had escalated to 15 percent since 2001, almost similar to the rate in developing countries like Thailand or Malaysia.

“The study thus concluded that anal penetration has 18 times more risk for HIV infection as compared to the normal population because biologically, the anus have more blood vessels than a woman's vagina and therefore, it is a good site in transmitting the virus by blood.

“So, for how long will these columnists and SIS continue to protect this lifestyle and to whose benefit will they serve?” she said.