Malaysian Sharia Court Refuses to recognize conversion to Christianity
International Herald Tribune | May 29, 2007
PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia: Malaysia’s top civil court rejected a Muslim woman’s appeal to be recognized as a Christian on Wednesday, in a landmark case that tested the limits of religious freedom in the moderate Islamic country.
A three-judge Federal Court panel ruled by a 2-1 majority that only the Islamic Shariah Court has the power to allow Lina Joy, who converted to Christianity in 1998, to remove the word “Islam” from the religion category on her government identity card.
“This appeal is rejected,” Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim said. “Apostasy is a matter linked to Islamic laws. It’s under the jurisdiction of the Shariah court … Civil courts cannot interfere.”
“She cannot simply at her own whims enter or leave her religion,” Judge Ahmad Fairuz said. “She must follow rules.”
The ruling is likely to drive another wedge in the Malaysian society which has become increasingly polarized in recent years with Buddhist, Christian and Hindu minorities complaining that their religious rights are held hostage to Islam. Muslim groups that say Islam is under threat because of people like Joy hailed the verdict.
Dozens of Muslims gathered outside the domed court house in the administrative capital of Putrajaya, and shouted “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great,” when they heard about the verdict.
Judge Richard Malanjum, the only non-Muslim on the panel, sided with Joy, saying it was “unreasonable” to ask her to turn to the Islamic Shariah court because she could face criminal prosecution for apostasy there.
He said the constitution was the supreme law of the land and Joy — who was not present at Wednesday’s hearing — should have the freedom to choose her religion.
Joy is “extremely disappointed” with the verdict, said her lawyer, Benjamin Dawson. She has not decided on the next course of action, he told The Associated Press. Joy can either remain a Muslim, go to the Shariah court or leave the country.
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Wednesday 30 May 2007 | JBL | Islam |
for those of you following along at home, THIS is an example of a theocracy.
JBL, it is indeed a fine example of a theocracy.
What intrigues me is how and why the Western Christian tradition jettisoned the idea of racial and religious purity that is embraced with such fervor by the Islamic world today. In much of Europe at one point, it was “assumed that religious unity was necessary for political unity, but only in Spain was there such a sense of urgency in enforcing religious conformity.”
Forced conversions and expulsions of those who would not was the order of the day (as occurred to the Jews in 1492). I am always reluctant to bring up the peccadilloes of a tradition whose modern interpretation I embrace in many ways, but there you have it. When Christianity was as old as Islam is today, there were a great deal of injustices and atrocities that were committed with hearty approval of both peasant and Pope. Perhaps it highlights the possibility that Islam will evolve as Christianity has, I don’t know.
In any rate, while truth may never change, it seems quite evident that religions do.