Kiss and show!

Last week, at a seminar in Malaysia on Syariah Law, the governing officer wants non-Muslims committing khalwat (close proximity - click on "close proximity" for full news article) with Muslims to also be held liable but charged in the civil courts and not the Islamic Syariah Court. This proposal was of course dropped the next day following objections from various human rights advocate bodies.

Ironically, on the same day, Brian had an interesting encounter here in Singapore that is related to "close proximity." Here's what happened: it was a sultry day late in the afternoon when most people who live on our building were either at work or in school. Brian, who has been working hard all day at home on his research, decided to take a break and come visit me at my office. Instead of taking the lift, for some reason, he decided that he would take the stairs. As he walked down the stairs from our 6th floor, he was very quiet as he was wearing his sneakers. He tried to multi-task by sending me a text message on his phone. As he approached the 4th floor, he sensed that there were some people sitting on the stairs of the 3rd but he didn't take too much notice of it. Then, as he approached the 3rd floor, he saw the backs of a middle-aged Malay Muslim couple who was engaged in a somewhat compromising position. Specifically, the man's face (or was it his mouth?) was against (or was it on?) one of the the woman's, well, boobs! And underneath her blouse and headscarf!!! As Brian was so silent, they hadn't notice his coming and hence were caught in the (some) act!

Brian being Brian was both amused and embarrassed and hurried down the stairs pretending that he didn't see anything. But we all know that they were in "close proximity"! We speculated that they must not be a married couple as which married couple would be desperate enough to make out on the stairs of a public resident building? Why not go back to their own sack? Hmmm...

Ironic isn't it? Ahh... life in Singapore in close proximity to Malaysia!