PETALING JAYA: Stronger laws to deal with religious cults and heavier penalties against propagating deviant teachings can help curb the spread of such groups, said experts in the wake of the Global Ikhwan Services and Business Holdings (GISB) controversy.
They said current measures against those found guilty of such offences have not deterred the spread of these groups in the Muslim community, said syariah lawyers and legal experts.
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Malaysian Syariah Lawyers Association president Musa Awang said currently, those found guilty of being involved in deviant teachings will only face a maximum RM5,000 fine or a jail term no longer than three years, or a maximum six strokes of the whip.
“It doesn’t instil fear in them (deviants). Moreover, prosecuting a case will usually take a long time and involve many witnesses.
“In the end, those are the only possible punishments that can be meted out,” Musa said.
Following recent allegations of child abuse and exploitation by GISB members, the government has announced that a centralised system to report deviant Muslim teachings will be established.
The system will be managed by the Federal Islamic Development Department (Jakim), said Deputy Religious Affairs Minister Dr Zulkifli Hasan.
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The move would streamline investigations and improve response times to act on reports of deviant Muslim groups, said Zulkifli, following revelations that GISB had reportedly been abusing women and children for several years under the guise of running childcare shelters.
“Jakim is aware that there is a need to improve the workflow to overcome issues such as GISB and those related to deviant teachings in the country.
“In this case, investigations revealed that children and women were exploited, which raised the need for improving the standard operating procedure for reporting such cases.
“Jakim will develop a centralised system where anyone can report such cases directly to the authorities for an immediate response,” he said.
Universiti Malaya criminologist Dr Haezreena Begum Abdul Hamid said action against such groups tends to only take place after a deviant teaching has spread widely or a cult has expanded its following.
She said since only state syariah laws have provisions against deviant teachings, cults are primarily dealt with by state religious departments.
“This is because matters of Malay customs or Islam fall under the ambit of the state Islamic religious departments.”
Such cases, she added, would only involve other agencies if these groups commit crimes aside from syariah offences.
“As for federal laws, we don’t have one (to curb deviant teachings). We have a clear provision in Article 121(1A) of the Federal Constitution, which says that all matters related to Islam come under the state’s jurisdiction.
“Islamic matters will be dealt with by syariah laws.
“We do have Section 130(1)v where we do talk about organised crime groups but we do not have one that talks about cults or deviancy. We only investigate these groups when crimes have been committed.”
