Can Ezra Zaid get justice?

Over the years, I have grown very familiar with the Russel Square part of London.

Having being at the School of Oriental and African Studies some years back, I used to spend some afternoons reading in the park.

When one sits facing a certain angle, one can see a tall building resembling the one in the climatic scene in the movie “Ghostbusters”.

The building is the famous Senate House and any PhD student worth his salt knows that its library has some rare books worth looking at.

I found myself at Senate House last Friday, having been invited to be a supplementary panel with Malaysia’s iconic liberal politician, Datuk Zaid Ibrahim.

Despite my delight at having been afforded such an honour, the occasion was a most solemn one.

Zaid’s son, Ezra, is currently facing charges in the Shariah Court, which could land him a heavy fine or even a jail sentence. Can he get justice in such an institution?

To digress a little, I first met Ezra at the ZI Publications about five years ago.

An activist school chum, now deceased, brought me there for a visit. Ezra was a rising star back then.

“The Effing Show” had just started but had not migrated to YouTube. Even as far as London, we had heard of Ezra and his team.

He was a brave writer, not afraid to tackle some rather thorny subjects. In Malaysia a “thorny subject” is quite a simply a subject upon which the religious authorities has produced an opinion.

Once they have done so, a lay Muslim like Ezra simply cannot opine differently.

However, as any rational person would tell you, it is nigh on impossible to stop the thought process.

Ezra went one step further and actually encouraged it! As a result, he landed himself in hot soup with the religious authorities.

A few years ago, Ezra’s company, the aforementioned ZI Publications had translated and published the infamous Irshad Manji’s “Allah, Liberty and Love”.

This was deemed by the Selangor’s religious department (Jais) as an offence, since the ideas contained within that book were decidedly “liberal”.

At this juncture, we should also note that all liberal versions of Islam (including Sisters of Islam) has now been gazetted as “forbidden” by the Selangor religious authorities.

Liberal invokes a very allergic reaction in the conservative religious authorities and with good reason.

Once the Malay Muslim electorate is liberated to think for themselves, the very survival of these authorities will be in jeopardy.

If we were living in an Islamofascist state like Saudi Arabia, Ezra could be condemned to a capital punishment for aiding blasphemy.

Fortunately, we are living in a modern nation state where freedom of expression and religion is guaranteed.

At least, that is what it says in the constitution. In practice, it is simply not the case.

Only a few weeks ago, the Malay Mail published an article by Boo Su Lyn, who compiled views by Muslims who felt very scrutinised living in Malaysia.

Paradoxical to the idea that Malay Muslims have special privileges in our country, they are also subjected to draconian laws.

The fact is, despite the freedom of expression given to all citizens, the Malay Muslim enjoys his faith severe restrictions.

He is not allowed to renege from the Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jama’ah sect of Islam, for example.

In recent years, the Shia sect of Islam has been deemed heretical with fresh gusto.

Kassim Ahmad’s book, the now world famous, “Hadith: A Re-evaluation” was banned when it was first published.

Publishing Manji’s book in Malay was probably what alerted Jais to promptly prosecute Ezra some three years ago.

There was no law preventing them from doing so and the book was already available in English.

However, the Malay language happens to be the religious authorities’ home turf and so they went after ZI Publications with full force.

After a long legal battle, the Federal Court decided to preclude themselves from interfering with the decision of the religious authorities.

As Zaid noted in his letter to The Malaysian Insider last week, “Allah, Liberty and Love” was not a book of religious instruction.

It did not teach an alternative version of Islam. As Zaid noted, it was a book of personal reflection.

The problem is, the wrong kind of Muslim (a liberal) authored it.

This now brings us back to our eponymous question – can Ezra get justice?

It must be remembered that the Shariah Court to which he is now answerable operates along the same legal philosophy as his prosectors.

He will not get any mercy from the court for publishing a book, which challenges the authority of the prosecutors, let alone the judges themselves.

A book which was written by a self-proclaimed liberal, the very kind of Muslim Jais has deemed to be “haram”.

I am very pessmistic about Ezra’s case and it will mark a very dangerous precedent in our narrative.

There is a deep disparity of justice happening here. Muslims cannot get the justice we are entitled to as citizens while two parallel legal systems are in operation.

Unless we change things, there will be a continuing rift in our nation. – October 21, 2015.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.