Australians should object to Malaysian laws

The Australian Government should protest the barbarism of the planned caning of a woman (Ms. Shukarno) for drinking beer in public.  The punishment is a barbarous feature of unenlightened Islam.  More fundamentally Australia should object to laws introduced by religious fanatics to terrorise women.   

I agree with Geoffrey Barker (in this morning’s AFR) that cultural relativism has no role here:

“It is the relativist argument that outsiders can have only an imperfect understanding of the culture and attitudes of other societies and ought not to criticise practices that may seem inhumane to them.

If accepted this argument silences criticism not only of the flogging of women, but also the denial of education, genital mutilation and other practices used to enslave women in parts of the Islamic world”.

This argument is incoherent to Barker because such relativism implies that the implied prohibition on making moral judgements here is wrong.  The real reason however the Australian government is remaining silent is that it fears a dispute with Malaysia.  But this is not a good argument either since it is clear that only religious fanatics – certainly not the Malaysian Government – want this barbaric action implemented. 

The Malaysian Government have sought to ask Ms. Shukarno to appeal a religious court’s decision and have indicated that such an appeal would succeed.  Ms. Shukarno has bravely refused to appeal and insisted that the flogging be public.  She wants the world to see what religious fanatics are doing in Malaysia and the Malaysian Government is running scared rather thabn doing what is required which is to abolish religious courts and institutionalised barbarism.