Event Summary
SIS Forum (Malaysia) (previously known as Sisters in Islam) is a civil society organisation that advocates for the rights of Muslim women. In 2014, a fatwa issued by the Selangor State Fatwa Committee declared that any individual, organisation, or institution holding “liberalism and religious pluralism” beliefs—specifically naming SIS Forum (Malaysia)—was “deviant” from Islamic teachings. It called for the banning and seizure of related publications and instructed the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to block websites containing such content. SIS was neither informed nor consulted prior to the fatwa’s issuance.
SIS filed for judicial review and leave was granted in December 2014. The case saw conflicting decisions over the years, but on 19 June 2025, the Federal Court ruled by a 3–1 majority that the fatwa did not apply to SIS Forum (Malaysia), as it is a company and not a natural person capable of professing Islam. The Court also struck down the fatwa’s directives involving the MCMC for exceeding state jurisdiction. The bench made no findings on the substance of the fatwa, noting this was within Selangor Islamic Religious Council’s domain. The SIS ruling mirrors recent constitutional rulings that reassert federal supremacy over religious overreach.
In response to the ruling, Sultan Shaarafuddin urged the organisation to cease using “Sisters in Islam” in any form of publication across all platforms associated with the organisation. He justified the call as necessary to prevent “arbitrary use” of the word “Islam” for the organisation’s benefit and interests, whilst citing potential public confusion.
On 31 July 2025, Sisters in Islam, announced that it would drop the word “Islam” from its public-facing name in response to this “advice” and stated that it would henceforth sign off as “SIS Forum (Malaysia)”. Despite the change in name, SIS Forum (Malaysia) reaffirmed its commitment to advocating for Muslim women’s rights in Malaysia.
The SIS Forum name change reflects a longstanding pattern of religious institutions regulating public discourse—particularly when civil society invokes Islamic frameworks that challenge officially sanctioned interpretations to advance rights or reform. Since the 2014 fatwa, SIS Forum has faced exclusion from government policy consultations and faced reputational risks that limited its ability to carry out public-facing advocacy— including its freedoms of expression and association. The fatwa marked an unprecedented escalation—the first known instance of a state religious authority issuing a religious ruling against a named NGO registered as a company. It reflected an attempt to subject non-individual legal persons to Islamic legal and moral sanction, expanding religious authority beyond Syariah courts and Muslim individuals—within a broader legal environment (e.g., the Sedition Act, the Printing Presses and Publications Act) that already penalises critical discourse on religion, race, and royalty.
The fatwa’s directive for federal enforcement attempted to extend this reach into digital, corporate, and regulatory spaces, despite infringing federal laws. The SIS ruling mirrors recent constitutional rulings that reassert federal supremacy over religious overreach. In Nik Elin (2024), the Federal Court struck down 16 provisions of Kelantan’s Syariah Criminal Code for encroaching on federal criminal law. In Iki Putra (2021), it invalidated the Syariah provision that duplicated the Penal Code offence on sodomy. These rulings mark a fragile but vital line of protection for civil society actors advancing rights-based interpretations of Islam—even as state religious bodies push back to preserve dominance over public religious discourse.