"Alcohol ban" will affect 300,000 Muslims

newsdesk@thesundaily.com
Terence Fernandez

KLANG (Jan 25, 2011): At least 300,000 Muslims in Selangor’s service industry will be affected if local councils implement the Syariah Criminal Enactment of Selangor which prohibits Muslims from working in establishments which sell or serve alcohol.

State executive councillor for local government Ronnie Liu said these were preliminary figures available to the state government which is undertaking a study to determine how many Muslims will be affected by the enactment.

Section 18 (2) of the 1995 Enactment reads: "Anyone who manufactures, sells, offers to sell, displays for sale, stores, or purchases any alcoholic beverage is committing an offence and is subject to a fine of not more than RM5,000 or a jail term of not more than three years or both."

It came to prominence earlier this month when the Subang Jaya Municipal Council (MPSJ) decided to implement the enactment as a pre-requisite for entertainment outlets which sell alcohol for the renewal of their licences – i.e. lay off its Muslims workers and sign an undertaking that they will not employ Muslims.

"We did a study when Shah Alam City Council (MBSA) wanted to ban the sale of alcohol from 24-hour convenience stores two years ago. And these were the numbers we came up with," said Liu when met last night.

However, Liu said if one were to take into account every single aspect of the alcoholic beverage industry, the number of Muslims who may be affected may reach 1.5 million.

"The enactment is very comprehensive and I understand it prohibits the participation of Muslims from any activity which promotes the consumption of alcohol," said Liu.

He said this would mean that aside from entertainment outlets, restaurants, hotels, hypermarkets and breweries, it would also affect Muslims working in duty-free outlets, airline cabin crew, advertising agencies, logistics workers, truck drivers and even the security guards at breweries.

"I am no expert hence I will leave it to the task force set up to address this issue to find a solution," said Liu, adding that he has the utmost respect for Islam, and that his only concern is the livelihood of those affected by the enactment and their families.

"Even the RM320 million in zakat money will only be enough to sustain them for a year," he said, adding that taxes collected from these establishments could also be considered haram and the state will be burdened with deciding how to use the money collected so that it does not benefit Muslims.

Aside from alcohol, Liu fears that gambling will be next.

"We collect quite a hefty sum in taxes from Genting (part of which sits on Selangor). If later it is deemed haram for Muslims to work in establishments which promote gambling, the present problem will be compounded," he added