~ Unmarried Muslim couples evicted in Malaysia ~

Sunday, August 22


KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Malaysian Islamic authorities have been evicting unmarried Muslim civil servants from government-owned housing if they are caught with their partners alone in a private place, a news report said Sunday.

Several Muslims have been evicted from their homes in government quarters under a campaign launched early this year to rid the country's administrative capital Putrajaya of activities deemed immoral under Malaysian Islamic laws, the New Straits Times reported.

Che Mat Che Ali, director of the Federal Territory Islamic Affairs Department, said the measure was introduced under the campaign "Toward Zero Immoral Activities in Putrajaya 2010."

"It may seem harsh but we want the people of Putrajaya to know that we take this matter seriously," he was quoted as saying.

He said those caught by Islamic morality police were hauled up in court and then asked to move out.

Che Mat or other department officials could not immediately be reached.

Muslims, who make up two-thirds of the country's 28 million people, are subject to morality laws, such as forbidding them to drink alcohol in public, enforced by Islamic authorities and courts. The country's large Christian, Buddhist and Hindu communities are not subject to such laws.

Malaysia, long hailed as a moderate Islamic country, made headlines earlier this year when it whipped three Muslim women with a rattan cane after a court found them guilty of sex out of wedlock.