PEKAN: The Pahang Islamic Religious Department (JAIP) is prepared to follow in the footsteps of Terengganu to impose the whipping sentence on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) offenders in the state.
JAIP director Datuk Mohamad Noor Abdul Rani said discussions were still in the early stages and has to be scrutinised before any further decision is made.
He described the caning penalty by the Syariah High Court in Kuala Terengganu yesterday as appropriate as it shows that the authorities are serious in enforcing the Islamic law and helping curb LGBT.
“We support (the caning sentence) as it shows the beauty of Islam but in Pahang, we have not decided yet and will look into it,” he told reporters after opening the “Kembara Merdeka Hijrah 2018” at the JAIP office here.
The media yesterday reported that two women aged 22 and 32 years old respectively who were found guilty of attempting to have lesbian sex were caned six times in public, the first time such punishment is meted out in Terengganu. The sentence was carried out by a female officer from the Prison’s Department.
Meanwhile, Mohamad Rani said religious enforcement is continuously carried out to educate the transgender community through various programs conducted throughout the year.
“We conduct activities with Persatuan Insaf (a non-governmental organisation) to engage the transgender community to have strong ties with the religion and guide them back to the original path.
“We want to give them awareness and at the same time also support the sentencing carried out through the Islamic law as we want to educate the young generation on LGBT,” he said.
He said JAIP is mulling the idea to spread the public awareness message on LGBT by putting up signboards throughout the state.
“To date, we have signboards reminding people to stay away from committing vice and now we will put up the LGBT boards as part of the measures to tackle the problem.
“We will one day reach the stage of implementing (punishment), so educating the people will be continuously carried out as a reminder to the community to stop their acts which will only incur the wrath and anger of Allah,” he said.