KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's Sisters In Islam (SIS) have called on the country's courts to maintain the lifting of a ban on a book it published in 2008. Their statement comes as a court of appeals is due to hear a case against the book next Monday. The book, “Muslim Women and the Challenges of Islamic Extremism,” had been banned by the Home Ministry on July 21, 2008, on grounds that it would “threaten public order.” The ban was challenged in court where High Court judge Mohamad Ariff Yusof overturned the government's decision on January 25, 2010. However, the government filed an appeal against the High Court decision on February 3, 2010, more than two years ago. “SIS maintains that Justice Mohamad Ariff's decision was courageous, principled and commendable. We hope the Court of Appeal will honour and stand by the judicious decision made by the High Court," the Muslim women's NGO said in a statement on Monday. SIS said that Mohamad Ariff had said in his judgment in favour of SIS that “there are no objective facts to show that the book would ‘disturb public order, confuse Muslim women or confuse those with shallow knowledge of Islam'." It comes as a book by Canadian Muslim and lesbian author Irshad Manji had her recent volume banned in Malaysia, and has seen a store manager charged for attempting to sell the text. SIS argued that the ability to maintain the rights of Muslim women was “intertwined with freedom of expression." “We must be able to openly discuss, without fear, critical issues that are related to Muslim women, in particular when they impact our everyday lives. “In reversing the ban, the judge effectively safeguarded not only a constitutional liberty, namely freedom of expression, but a means by which to uphold women's rights."
