Word: malaysian
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...Tuesday, Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, a little more than a decade after he was arrested, beaten and jailed on sodomy charges, walked into a Kuala Lumpur courtroom to face the same charges once again. In August, the government charged the politician with sodomy for the second time in his career, in this case, with a 23-year-old former aide, Saiful Bukhari Azlan. Under Malaysian law, consensual sodomy or sex acts "against the order of nature," as it is described in the law here, is punishable with up to 20 years in jail...
...Whatever the word on the street in the Malaysian capital may be, the government denies any political motivation for the charges, saying Anwar committed a crime and must face criminal trial. Saiful, who was taken into protective police custody after he first made the allegation on June 26, 2008, has not been charged in the alleged act, and has written on his blog that he can't wait to confront Anwar in court. "I have waited for justice and hope to finally get it," he wrote in a recent posting...
...wake of a controversial court ruling, extremists in Muslim-majority Malaysia vandalized nine churches, using firebombs and paint. The Malaysian high court's decision held that a Catholic newspaper should be allowed to refer to God by the Arabic Allah. Previously, the government had banned the use of the word in non-Muslim publications. The uproar was a sign of the religious rifts challenging the multicultural nation, which has a 9% Christian minority. The court's ruling will not come into force while an appeal is pending...
...Among them: Deputy Trade Minister Mukhriz Mahathir, son of former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who also waded into the controversy, saying the court is not a proper forum to decide an emotional religious issue. "The judgment is a mistake," says Nazri Aziz, Minister overseeing Parliamentary Affairs, speaking for many Malaysian Muslims. The few Muslims who have urged respect for judicial independence have been shouted down as traitors. "I can't understand how any Muslim can support this judgment," said legislator Zulkifli Noordin in a statement. (See pictures of Islam in Asia...
...series of deadly terror attacks since 2002. For four years, calm reigned in Indonesia. Yet just nine days after the President's re-election, fatal bombings at Jakarta hotels shattered any illusion that extremism had been eradicated. Raids on terror hideouts resulted in the killing of Noordin Top, the Malaysian militant who is believed to have orchestrated the bombings. But questions remain about how Southeast Asia's most wanted terrorist managed to crisscross Indonesia with ease for years - and whether the authorities did enough to try to nab him. (Read "Facing the Enemy...