A group of suspected militants, detained indefinitely without trial under Malaysia's draconian Internal Security Act (ISA), has called on the head of the national muftis' council to declare the law illegal under Islam after they allegedly were forced to strip, perform sexual acts and lick water off the floor while under police interrogation. Their written call has received the backing of Muslim activists campaigning against the law.
The 22 detainees, all of them Muslim, who wrote the letter last week want the muftis to review the law from the viewpoint of Islam and to state whether or not the rules and regulations were illegal or inconsistent with Sharia (Islamic laws).
The detainees complained they were remanded for 60 days under the ISA, based merely on police suspicion that their activities were prejudicial to national security. They also claimed they were subjected to harsh treatment at the hands of interrogators. They said they were slapped, kicked and spat upon; they said they were subjected to other degradations - stripping, peforming secual acts and licking water from the floor.
Their grievances were listed in a 10-page handwritten letter, a copy of which was made available to independent news portal Malaysiakini.com. Muslim activists have lent support to the detainees' call for the muftis to make a ruling or issue a fatwa (edict) on the ISA.
"Theirs is definitely a very valid request, because so far the muftis have not taken any position on the ISA," said Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh, the chairman of the Abolish ISA Movement (GMI) working committee. "The muftis may have given opinions - that the ISA is against Islam - but they have not come up with an [official] position or fatwa."
Most of the detainees are alleged to be members of the regional terror network Jemaah Islamiya (JI) and another local group initially referred to as Kumpulan Mujahideen Malaysia (KMM), and later as Kumpulan Militan Malaysia (Malaysian Militant Group).
The US-based Human Rights Watch has urged the Malaysian government to allow independent monitors into its detention centers. "US abuse of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo shows what can happen behind closed doors," Sam Zarifi, the group's deputy director for Asia, told reporters in May.
Human Rights Watch said Malaysian police interrogators have used the US camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba as a threat. Detainees who refused to "cooperate" with Malaysian security officials were told they could be transferred to US custody there, the report says.
The authorities have not provided any concrete proof to the public as to the existence of these groups in Malaysia and activists say the detainees should be allowed to defend themselves in open court.
Officials have always denied mistreating detainees held under the ISA, which allows for virtually indefinite detention without trial. Some 100 detainees are being held under the ISA at the Kamunting Detention Camp, north of Kuala Lumpur. The majority of them are Muslims who were detained for alleged involvement in militant groups.
The ISA has also been used against those involved in passport forgeries and counterfeiting.
Detainees are sent to the center on renewable two-year detention orders for "rehabilitation" after the initial 60-day interrogation period.
Authorities argue that the ISA, a "preventive detention" law enacted in 1960 to deal with a communist insurgency at the time, is still needed to deal with the threat of terrorism and extremist groups and that conventional laws are inadequate.
Opponents of the law, for their part, say the ISA violates basic human-rights principles, especially the right to a fair trial. Former detainees have provided consistent testimony outlining a litany of mental, if not physical, abuse while in custody - especially during the first 60-day interrogation period.
On July 26, an unprecedented public debate on the ISA was held, pitting the minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Nazri Abdul Aziz,against parliamentary opposition leader Lim Kit Siang. The forum, dubbed "The Great Malaysia Debate", drew a capacity crowd of 1,000 people at a public hall in Kuala Lumpur.
Nazri argued that the ISA was needed as the internal security minister - a post currently held by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi - would not have the "courage" to arrest those suspected of threatening national security if the ISA detention order was subjected to judicial review.
"The minister must be given the discretion to decide on the order, irrespective of whether it is right or wrong," said Nazri. "He must be made to feel at ease when deciding on the detention order." Nazri also argued that if the people had not agreed with the ISA, they would not have kept giving the ruling coalition a mandate to govern the country.
One of the most vocal Muslim groups campaigning against the ISA is Jamaah Islam Malaysia (JIM), an Islamic missionary group. Its president, Zaid Kamaruddin, said: "The whole idea is to get a clear edict or fatwa from the muftis on the question of the ISA.
"The main issue is detention without trial, where a detainee is held without the right to clear himself - we believe it is contrary to Islamic principles," he said.
JIM visited several muftis last year, and a request was made to them to issue a fatwa. The group handed over a book by JIM's founder and president and ex-ISA detainee Saari Sungib, who wrote a series of books on his detention experience in 2001. One of them was titled ISA: Forbidden (Haram) Laws Must Be Repealed - What Is the Stand of the National Fatwa Council?
"To have an official Islamic stand [on the ISA] would be important," Zaid argued. "That would be the one the government would have to respond to."