KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 21, 2009): The High Court here today fixed Jan 25 for a decision on the application by Sisters in Islam (SIS) to lift the Home Ministry's ban on its book "Muslim Women and the Challenge of Islamic Extremism".

Justice Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof fixed the date after hearing submissions from senior federal counsel Noor Hishamuddin Ismail, for the then homeminister, Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar, and SIS's counsel, Malik Imtiaz Sarwar.

SIS, in its application for a judicial review, claimed the ban on the book was outside the ambit of the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 and contravened Articles 8(2), 10(1)(a) and 11(4) of the Federal Constitution.

The book -- a collection of essays by activists and international intellectuals edited by sociologist Prof Norani Othman of the Malaysian and International Studies Institute, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia -- was banned on the grounds that it was inclined towards confusing the Muslim community, particularly women, and an attempt to interpret statements about Islam.

Earlier, Noor Hishamuddin submitted that the minister had absolute discretion in coming to the decision as he had sought views from the Islamic Development Department of Malaysia (Jakim) pertaining to Islamic laws before making his decision.

He said the court should not interfere in the decision unless the minister had acted irrationally and contravened the law when he ordered the ban.

Noor Hishamuddin also said members of the public with little knowledge of Islam could not discuss the religion as it would affect the Muslim faith and ideology.

He said the minister's ground that the book was prejudicial to public order as it questioned the Islamic family and criminal laws was correct because the articles were punitive in nature and could affect the sanctity of the religion.

The writers were trying to interpret Islamic laws with their own understanding of the matter, he added.

Malik Imtiaz submitted that the minister's order was not supported by the experts and Jakim's guidelines on Islamic issues had no force of law as nothing in law said that Jakim was the authority in Islamic issues.

He said Article 11(4) of the Federal Constitution stated that the prejudicial to public order issue fell under the Federal Constitution while the 'akidah' (faith) issue fell under the State Religious Authority.

Malik Imtiaz said the writers only expressed their views on the academic area of approaching the Islam administration and had nothing to do with the akidah.

He also said the burden was on the minister to prove that the book would confuse Muslim readers. -- Bernama