PETALING JAYA: An LGBT activist has been asked to apologise and retract his claim of the existence of state-sponsored violence against the LGBT community in Malaysia.
Numan Afifi was accused of misleading the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) when he spoke during Malaysia’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the UN in Geneva, Switzerland, last month.
“Nothing could be further from the truth than his allegation that the Mukhayyam programme by the Islamic Development Department of Malaysia (Jakim) amounts to state-sponsored violence and a form of conversion therapy against the local LGBT community,“ the Malaysian Alliance of Civil Society Organisations in the UPR Process (MACSA) said in a statement today.
“It must further be pointed out that in making this assertion Numan has relied on no credible evidence to back this incredulous claim.”
It said the Mukhayyam programme is to address health issues surrounding the LGBT community.
“Jakim and state Islamic religious authorities have been working together with the Ministry of Health in addressing the escalation of new HIV/AIDS cases among transgender persons and men who have sex with men,“ it said.
“Participation in the Mukhayyam programme is also completely voluntary with no elements of coercion involved and is far indeed from conversion therapy practised by other countries which involve an element of forced participation.”
Numan has said he has been summoned by the police over his speech at the UN. He was asked to be at the police headquarters in Kuala Lumpur on April 26 for questioning.
