Let's respect Ramadan, and respect each other too

A family breaking their Ramadan fast by the side of a highway in Gombak, Selangor, as they travel to the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia to celebrate Hari Raya. — Reuters

It might be tougher now to enjoy your chicken nuggets for lunch, especially if you’re a Muslim in the month of Ramadan.

This is because of a story that went viral last week: An employee at a local fast food outlet had decided to post on TikTok a video from a surveillance camera of three women wearing hijabs, annotated with “9pcs of nuggets, cheesy fries and ice lemon tea and dined in” (translated from Malay) and ending with “Don’t you feel bad for the customers that are fasting?”

There were those who absolutely agreed with the poster and were shocked how casually people would do something so explicitly forbidden. Perhaps the authorities should just close all eateries during daylight hours. After all, they already close canteens in primary schools even though most children don’t actually need to fast.

And then there were those who said we should just let these women eat in peace. Not everybody is compelled to fast (for example, if you are ill, pregnant or having your period). Why should we shame them?

One side was saying, you must respect the religion, while the other side was saying, you must respect fellow humans. But I say, you must also respect the law.

Specifically, the Syariah Criminal Offences (Federal Territories) Act 1997 contains a section titled “Disrespect for Ramadan”, which makes it an offence to sell food to a Muslim for immediate consumption, and it also does not allow a Muslim to eat in a public place.

If found guilty for the first time, the offender can be fined up to RM1,000 or imprisoned up to six months. For the second (and subsequent) offence, the maximum fine and jail term limits are doubled.

I mean, the prospect of spending a year in jail because you sold somebody a box of fries is the kind of plot you’d find in a 30-minute old-fashioned sitcom. But, of course, this is no laughing matter.

Note that the way the Act is written gives absolutely no leeway to any Muslim, even those who are not compelled to fast. The equivalent clause in the Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code is more specific, saying “Any person who is not supposed to break his fast according to Hukum Syarak, who consumes any food or drink or smokes any tobacco or otherwise in the hours of daylight in the month of Ramadan shall be guilty of an offence”.

Does this mean that in Kelantan, Muslims who can break fast during the day (or not fast) can do so at any time they wish? The law is inconsistent between states, which irks me more than it should.

Beyond Malaysia, there certainly have been people upset about Muslims eating in public. In Singapore last year, there was a furore when a Chinese woman scolded Muslim women who were eating in a food court in public, and the video footage went public. Singapore has no laws against this, but like the fast food example earlier, there was moral outrage from both sides.

In Egypt this year, the government body authorised to issue religious edicts wrote a Facebook post strongly forbidding people of all faiths from eating publicly during Ramadan before the sunset. They wrote, “Eating publicly during the day in Ramadan is not within the personal freedoms of a person. It’s a type of anarchy and an attack on the sacredness of Islam”. However, in Egypt there is no law prohibiting eating in public as such, and one commentator noted it will result in Muslims “who will comply with God’s orders for fear of the government rather than for fear of God”.

There are many other countries in the Middle East and North Africa that don’t seem to have laws or explicit text about eating in public during Ramadan, including Algeria, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Sudan, Syria and Tunisia.

Other countries can impose fines, including Kuwait, Oman and the United Arab Emirates, while Iraq and Jordan include the option to impose jail terms. Bahrain and Qatar extend the punishment to non-Muslims.

At the higher end of the punishment scale are countries like Saudi Arabia, where flogging is one of the punishments. And then there is Somalia, where local warlords decide the laws at their whim, and execution is not necessarily excluded.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that insofar as the spectrum of interpretation and punishments go, Malaysia is at the slightly higher end of the scale. But how much leeway do we have to change our position on it?

I feel there is a good reason to relook and harmonise the laws. For a start, the laws may recognise that not all Muslims need to fast, and then be explicit about what is possible.

Take for example, the Ehtram-e-Ramzan Ordinance of 1981 in Pakistan that lays down ordinances for the month of Ramadan. Naturally, there are sections prohibiting eating and serving food in public places. Specifically, it says “No person who, according to the tenets of Islam, is under an obligation to fast shall eat”.

I think that that’s perhaps the best way of wording it; that under Islam, there are circumstances where a person is not obliged to fast, and this law does not immediately apply to them.

But the law goes one step further. It explicitly also lists places that are exempt and can serve food during Ramadan. They include restaurants in hospitals, airports and primary schools. The law is fundamentally recognising that people who are ill, who travel or who are too young don’t have to fast.

We should take the effort to make our laws just as clear and comprehensive. Remember that laws are written by people for people, and that ideally they should reflect the diversity not only of the community but also the personal beliefs of practitioners.

For as much as we should all respect important religious and cultural beliefs and practices, such as the holy month of Ramadan, it should be at least as important that we can convey that into respect and understanding of each other.

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In his fortnightly column, Contradictheory, mathematician-turned-scriptwriter Dzof Azmi explores the theory that logic is the antithesis of emotion but people need both to make sense of life’s vagaries and contradictions. Write to Dzof at [e-mail]. The views expressed here are entirely the writer's own.