COMMENT Khairy Jamaluddin and Umno Youth should stop their roadshows to smear the name of Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim, whose conviction and sentence of five years' imprisonment for sodomy was upheld by the Federal Court.

The Federal Court judgment has come up for severe criticism from human rights organisations and foreign governments. Many have criticised the prosecution of Anwar for sodomy as being politically motivated to weaken the Opposition.

Umno Youth claims that the roadshow is to explain the verdict and rebut accusations that Umno leaders had conspired to bring down Anwar with the trial. The verdict has been widely reported, with details in the print and electronic media.

Therefore, what is there to explain to the public?

On the first forum of the road shows organised by Khairy in Kelana Jaya, Malaysiakini reported: “…the Sodomy II case took a turn for the lurid when X-rated details not mentioned in open court during the seven-year trial was revealed by prosecutor Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.”

Is this explaining the verdict or smearing the reputation of the opposition leader, who is in prison and has no opportunity to defend himself?    

Shafee’s character assassination of Anwar at the forum, with Anwar having no opportunity to defend himself, was despicable, unethical, unIslamic and cowardly.

How can one sink so low! The roadshow shows how disconnected Shafee and Khairy are from the teachings of Islam, resulting in them losing their moral compass.

The Quranic warning on Qazaf

In Islamic law, a person who accuses another of homosexuality must produce four witnesses to the act and if he fails to do so he would be punished.  Observe the Quranic warning on Qazaf, which is on directing an accusation of fornication towards someone:

"Those who accuse honourable women ( and men ) and bring not four witnesses as an evidence [for their accusation], inflict eighty stripes upon them, and never accept their testimony in future. They indeed are transgressors" ( 24 : 4 ).

Also, smearing and slandering a person is a sin and a Muslim who engages in such activity, despite knowing the Islamic teaching on such matters, is regarded as a munafiq, a hypocrite. Observe again the Quranic implication:

“O you who believe! Avoid much suspicion, in deeds some suspicions are sins. And spy not neither backbite one another. Would one of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? You would hate it (so hate backbiting). And fear God, verily, God is the one who accepts repentance, Most Merciful. (49: 12).”

Prophet Muhammad said: "Do you know what backbiting is?" They said, "God and His Messenger know best." He then said, "It is to say something about your brother that he would dislike." Someone asked the prophet, "But what if what I say is true?" The Messenger of God  said, "If what you say about him is true, you are backbiting him, but if it is not true then you have slandered him."

Sodomy politics has been with us for over 16 years. In 1998, fearing a challenge to his leadership, them prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad not only sacked Anwar but accused him of a litany of charges, including sodomy, illicit sexual relations and being an American agent.

Just a few months earlier, Mahathir had defended Anwar against those charges made by his enemies. His turnabout has not been explained.

Anwar was prosecuted for abuse of power and sodomy and sentenced to a long prison term. When Abdullah Ahmad Badawi became prime minister, the Federal Court overturned the sodomy conviction of Anwar and released him.

Anwar returned to active politics and formed the Pakatan Rakyat, a coalition of his own party, PKR, with PAS and DAP, which was considered unachievable by many.

Pakatan went on to change the political scenario in Malaysia by capturing three state governments, in addition to Kelantan, in the 2008 general election, and this sent shock waves throughout the nation.   

Resources squandered on immoral activities

Those who are responsible for sodomy politics and character assassination of Anwar should reflect on the damage they have done to the reputation of the Malay community and the corruption of the morals of our youth.

The Malays are, now, perceived as having nothing better to do than indulging in sodomy politics and character assassination of their leaders who want change. The resources squandered on these immoral and unIslamic activities could have been better put to addressing the many problems facing the Malay community.

Illicit sex and sodomy, which previously one was shy to even mention, have become trivialised, household words, and the subject of jokes as a result of the wide publicity given to the sodomy trials and circulation of fabricated pornographic videos of Anwar by politicians who claim to be Muslims.  

From day one, Anwar has been denying the criminal charges against him, including sodomy, and accusing the government of fabricating them as part of a political conspiracy to kill his political future.

He even raised the issue of political conspiracy during the court trials, but it was not investigated.

A large section of our people, many foreign governments and human rights organisations, and some senior ulama as well, believe Anwar’s accusation. This can be gauged from the increased support for him in the elections after his release and the grand reception given to him by world leaders like Turkey’s President Erdogan, a devout Muslim.

The only way to resolve this issue, which is creating a bad image of Malaysia, and deep divisions within the Malay community, is not through character assassination roadshows but by holding an independent, public inquiry into the charges made by Anwar.

Enough is enough. Let us stop sodomy politics and focus on the challenges – economic, social, cultural, educational, environmental – that are facing us.

MOHD AZMI ABDUL HAMID is president of the Malaysian Consultative Council of Islamic Organisations.