Babyrina and four witnesses

In Malaysia, people often get confused between politics in Islam and politicising Islam.

If I were to take a narrow interpretation of the Islamic law, one would need to produce four witnesses when accusing someone of adultery or indecent behaviour and by virtue of that a video, picture or any form of scientific proof deems invalid as it was never mentioned in the Quran. But of course, Islamic laws are not that narrow nor is it that idiotic. There’s no such notion that all scientific empirical evidence is excluded for the sake of four witnesses.

By Zaidel Baharuddin, Free Malaysia Today

If you remember the days of dialling 1515 through a 56kbit dial up modem, chances are you know who Babyrina is.

During the days of ‘Jaring’ being the only Internet Service Provider, Babyrina was somewhat of an urban legend. Some say she’s actually a Latino while others say she’s an ex-MAS stewardess who resides in United Kingdom.

Whoever she may really be, in the days of limited bandwidth and having the patience to wait several minutes for pictures to load, Babyrina filled the exciting imaginations of many pubescent young men in the early nineties.

Yes kids, this is before Facebook, heck it’s even before Friendster, this was the time where the definition of social network is #kampung at MIRC.

Anyway for the sake of some readers I should do some explanation. Babyrina is supposedly the first Malay porn star whose pictures hit the Internet in the early nineties.

This were the days when handphones have yet acquired the capability of taking pictures and recording videos ( hence 3GP production was not yet available) thus randy photos of a Malay lass in action was something very rare which in turn propels Babyrina to stardom.

She became a household name amongst the few netizens back in those days. I believe she hosted her own site complete with paid membership and all the jazz of an adult entertainment entrepreneur.

Of course this was eons ago. Now locally produced videos are abundant around the net in the form of pixelated 3GP formats and some even in high quality high definition infra-red spy camera videos shot from various angles.

From the stairs of a low cost flat to hotels and fancy apartments indeed it has been a long journey since the days of Babyrina.

The rise of the infidels

Ironic it may sound, it seems that today, Babyrina is even more related to the Malay society more than she was during her heydays of cyberspace.

The only difference this time around is that unlike before, where her name was being mentioned in discussions amongst amorous netizens who has time to spend on waiting for things to load, this time she is more related in the realm of politics and morality.

Now if you follow Malay politics you should notice by now that one of the favourite subjects when it comes to politics amongst the Malays is Islam. Not that there’s anything wrong with it for aligning your political ideology with the values of Islam, it is something that every Muslim should do.

The only problem is that thanks to politicians, when it comes to a political discourse it usually ends with the conclusion that the other side are infidels.

You can’t win when face with righteous self-proclaimed honourable teacher who somehow seems to give out ‘fatwas’ that coincides with political expediencies. After all they say who is he who lacks knowledge to question the honourable teacher?

Take for example when politicians began to preach that videos and DNAs shouldn’t be used in courts and that a true Islamic way to settle disputes is to bring it to a syariah trial hence the need to produce four witnesses.

Some even go as far as bringing in ‘Qazaf’ as a measure of proving innocence because of the prosecutors’ failure to produce four witnesses.

I have been accused of many things when posing questions on these ‘interpretations’ of the Islamic laws, from the usual ‘Kafir’ (infidel) to ‘Yahudi’ (Jewish) though I don’t really mind being the latter as my usual retort being “Ok lah tu, Nabi Isa pun Yahudi jugak”

If I were to take a narrow interpretation of the Islamic law, one would need to produce four witnesses when accusing someone of adultery or indecent behaviour and by virtue of that a video, picture or any form of scientific proof deems invalid as it was never mentioned in the Quran.

Quite stupid don’t you think?

And even more amazing, let’s just say authorities wanted to press charges to Babyrina, the infamous Malay pornstar for “indecent morally detrimental activities”, they would then need to produce four witnesses who saw her in action right before their eyes (meaning live).

Any failure to do so, Babyrina can file for Qazaf in the very same court to sentence authorities for wrongdoing and false accusation.

But of course, Islamic laws are not that narrow nor is it that idiotic. There’s no such notion that all scientific empirical evidence is excluded for the sake of four witnesses.