A female participant of Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia symposium takes the time to read the Holy Quran. — Picture by Choo Choy May

KUALA LUMPUR, April 30 — Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia’s (Isma) news portal has decried the focus on Islam in an ongoing marital rape debate, claiming that other religions are worse as they may permit anal sex in marriage.

Ismaweb.net senior editor Razali Zakaria pointed out that DAP assemblyman Yeo Bee Yin’s rape awareness campaign did not target any particular religion, accusing “liberal” news portals that are “close to the Jews” of trying to denigrate Islam by reporting that Muslim women are prohibited from denying their husbands sex.

“Do other religious believers not ‘force’ their wives to have sex? Maybe some are even worse - sodomising their wives,” Razali said in an editorial published yesterday on Ismaweb.net.

“Maybe these anti-Islam quarters and portals that use the tactics of ‘infidel djinns’ don’t want to play up the issue of sodomising wives in Islam because they know that this is forbidden in Islam,” added the editor of the Muslim right-wing group’s portal.

Malay Mail Online reported Monday Perak Mufti Tan Sri Harussani Zakaria as saying that a Muslim woman has “no right” to reject her husband’s demand for sex, claiming that Prophet Muhammad had said women must have sex if their husbands want it even if they are on the back of a camel.

The Islamic scholar said a Muslim woman can only deny her husband sex if she is menstruating, ill, or has just given birth.

Harussani’s remarks were made in response to Damansara Utama assemblyman Yeo’s rape awareness campaign that had raised ire among some Muslims who claimed marital rape does not exist in Islamic marriage.

Ismaweb.net’s Razali said he believes that most Muslims will not rape their wives if their spouses have good reason for rejecting sex.

“Even if the wife continues to reject sex, Islam has shown another way for the husband to release his desires - not one, in fact Islam encourages men to marry up till four women if they can afford to,” he said.

“If he can’t afford to marry more and if the wife still refuses to entertain him, there is still another way even if God disapproves - divorce and find another partner. That is, if there is no other way,” Razali added.

He stressed that in a Muslim marriage, the bodies of both husband and wife belong to each other.

“In a spousal relationship, both partners must treat each other well,” he said.