Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-ndmmz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-30T23:58:59.560Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

6 - Social Activism and the Article 11 Coalition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2015

Get access

Summary

At the end of the previous chapter, some of the limitations for liberal constitutionalists of wholly legal approaches were recognized. In this chapter I examine an example of social activism in response to the failure of legal challenges to Islamically founded restrictions on freedom of religion. I begin by describing the formation of a coalition of lawyers and activists called Article 11. I then indicate the efficacy of extralegal activism by briefly describing a particular case on which they focussed public attention.

ARTICLE 11

On 26 June 2004, a coalition of more than ten NGOs conducted a day-long public forum in the auditorium of the Malaysian Bar Council. This coalition was named Article 11 after the article in the Constitution that articulates freedom of religion. The forum drew an audience of some two hundred people made up of lawyers, interested lay people, and social activists.

Article 11 coalition members had been concerned with the erosion of constitutionally enshrined fundamental liberties. This erosion is the result of the increase in the social and political legitimacy of Islam. The influence of Islam in civil law and the deference of the civil courts to the Syariah courts on some matters has adversely affected the rights of those who belong to religions other than Islam, of those who are Muslim but do not wish to follow State sanctioned interpretations of Islam, and, as we shall see, also of women, both Muslim and non-Muslim. The coalition was formed to organize social and political activism when lawyers and activists realized that the erosion of liberties brought about by Islamization was not a problem that could be remedied by action within the courtroom alone. It was a socio-political problem that could only be countervailed if accompanied by socio-political engagement. As put by Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, who spoke at this forum,

There is no benefit to be gained now … in waiting for some magic miracle to occur in the courts. … The courts are merely, in their minds, correctly reflecting political will as they understand it. … I think the issue is not a legal one at all. It is a socio-political consideration.

Article 11 is composed of various NGOs, only some of which have religious orientations.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
Print publication year: 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×