Demands from both in and outside Malaysia requesting the government to act responsibly, to prevent "Sex Offences" against children by disallowing Sharia Courts to legitimise such offences have been disregarded.

The views of the ministers responsible to protect children however, are that, there have to be caveats allowing child marriages especially amongst the Muslim community due to the powers given to Sharia courts. There were even calls by Malaysian law makers of the muslim community saying that Rape victims "should” marry their rapists, and that, 9 year old children should be allowed to marry.

The constitution of Malaysia is clear that the Sharia courts are limited to administering personal laws to Muslims. To grant Sharia courts the jurisdiction to give immunity to sex criminals by imposing light fines, or simply getting off scot free by allowing these perpetrators to marry their victims, where, federal laws would have imposed heavier sentences makes a mockery of both the Constitution and the Federal laws.

These abuse of the legal process has most recently been seen in the case of Che Mohd Karim Che Hamid (41). who took on a 11 year old child as his 3rd wife, where he had been lightly fined (US$380) for a lesser offence of marrying without proper approval, where, in his own admission he had stated that the child had been groomed since she was 7. The child’s father has also admitted to agreeing to the marriage for financial gain, clearly a case of sexual grooming of a child and, of child trafficking.

Some of the other well publicised cases include:

-A 35 year old man in N. Sembilan who was married to his 14 year old disabled rape victim and had charges dropped against him, who then went on to rape her 11 year old sister.

-A 40 year old Sabahan who married his 13 year old rape victim.

-School Teacher Abd Manan Othman (23) marrying Siti Maryam Mahmod (14) at a state organised mass wedding ceremony

While the 2010 population census did not reveal appropriate data it has been reported that in 2009, 32 children below the age of 10 were married, while the Population Census in 2000 showed that 10,267 children in the 10-14 age group were married.

The penal code has clear provisions for acting against such crimes, however, to appease the majority Muslim community in the country, the government has turned a blind eye to such crimes and allowed criminals to turn to Sharia Courts to give immunity to their crimes under the guise that it is a religious matter, allowing the Sharia Courts ruling to "Trump" over the Civil legislature which has the appropriate powers to punish such offenders.

The Shariah Courts have to be disallowed in making decisions that supersede Federal Laws, especially where, a crime has already been committed prior to the matter being brought before the Sharia Courts.

The Civil Procedure Code, and all other Federal Laws have to be given their rightful place as the Supreme laws of the land, and where, the Sharia Courts are to be disallowed to “Trump Over” such powers.