Our Federal Constitution protects our freedom to preach... with conditions

Zakir Naik, a name spoken by many, be it good or bad. Well, if you’ve been living under a rock and don’t know who he is, let us give you a brief background. Zakir Naik’s an Indian citizen (who’s now been given Malaysian PR). He’s known for his controversial televangelism and is even a recipient of many awards. Since his residency here, he has come under fire for some of the rhetorics in his speeches. 

The backlash he received was also followed by an influx of police reports made against him. This prompted the Police Department to launch an investigation against him under Section 504 of the Penal Code which specifies that he may have intentionally provoked citizens eventually causing a breach of peace amongst society. 

( some things can be obviously seditious but what if your pastor is unknowingly seditious)  However, what happens when your local pastor, priest or preacher seemingly or maybe unknowingly releases materials or recorded speeches that sound kinda racist? Can evangelist like them be charged for sedition?

Are religious preachings allowed in Malaysia? 

Before we get into the really serious stuff, can your religious leader (aka your pastor, priest and etc.) actually preach religious teachings in Malaysia? Well for one, our Federal Constitution actually specifies under Article 11(1) that we’re free to practice any religion in Malaysia while also propagating it. So yay! You’re allowed to preach or propagate your religious believes in Malaysia. 

But hold your horses, here’s the catch… You’re allowed to spread or preach your religion to anyone EXCEPT to Muslims. So it’s technically illegal for you to preach to a Muslim here, under Art. 11(4) of the Federal Constitution. So, maybe throwing religious pamphlets randomly into people’s house isn’t that good of an idea. 

Constitutionally, we do have the freedom to practice and even preach whatever religion that we want.  our Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohammad has already given us the reassurance that everyone in Malaysia has the freedom to practice any religion that they want in Malaysia with it’s exceptions as per mentioned in our Constitution.  (Mahathir confirmed it)

So, can preaching be considered seditious under Malaysian law? 

So here comes serious part: what could be considered as having seditious tendencies? To be specific, under Section 3(1) of the Sedition Act 1948, having seditious tendency  means inciting negativity or hatred towards any Ruler or any Government. 

So technically, if your pastor or preacher starts slandering other races and religion in their speech, they could be held liable for sedition. And if they are convicted, they could see themselves being possibly imprisoned for not more than 3 year or a fined not exceeding RM5,000 or both. The catch? Well, those charges are specific to first time offenders only. Subsequent offenders would be imprisoned for up to 5 years. 

But what happens if you get caught possessing materials or publications that are seditious in nature? If there’s any books or videos or even pamphlets inciting hate towards the different races here or towards the Government, that particular material could be considered seditious in nature. And trust us when we say this, those punishment for being caught possessing or distributing such materials isn’t all that easy either. If you got caught possessing such material for the first time, the law will just be a tad bit easier on you, letting you off with a fine of RM2,000 or to imprisonment for not more than 18 months or both. Yea, when we said tad bit, we actually meant it. If you were caught again, you can expect the worst as you’d either be imprisoned for not more than 3 years and whatever form of publication you were caught with will be destroyed as the court sees fit. ( narrow it down to religious publication) (religious publication that could be considered seditious) 

Well, to put it simply, any jibber jabber that incites ANY kind of negativity towards our Government or the Rulers aka the Sultans of our country could land you in jail

The thin line between freedom of speech and sedition(reword) 

(redo closing) 

( all in constitutionally we can practice freedom of religion) (be mindful of what you can and cannot preach) (don't be seditious) 

A report by The Star in July 2018, the Prime Minister’s Department for Religious Affairs, Dr. Muhahid Yusof Rawa initially proposed a bill that could primarily handle instances when both Muslims and Non-Muslims faced racism. (possibly quote the dude) (RELINK WITH PROPER REPORT) 

The Religious and Racial Hatred Bill was initially proposed to Najib Razak in 2015 but nothing more of it was heard. The bill proposed to severely punish those who incite religious and racial hatred by fining them up to RM100,000 or up to 7 years imprisonment. With freedom of speech and religion being every citizen’s constitutional right, this bill somewhat encroaches upon this right. However, Section 504 of the Penal Code already criminalise intentional hate speech that could provoke a breach of peace. This bill has not been passed yet as we already have pretty stringent laws against racial and religious incitement, making this bill somewhat arbitrary. 

[READ MORE: IS THERE FREEDOM OF SPEECH IN MALAYSIA IF YOU CAN GET ARRESTED FOR FACEBOOK POSTS?]