Voodoo Vince

M'sia's Islamic court allows Muslim convert to return to Buddhism

KUALA LUMPUR - A MALAYSIAN Islamic court allowed a Muslim convert on Thursday to return to her original faith of Buddhism, setting a precedent that could ease religious minorities' worries about their legal rights.

Lawyers said the Shariah High Court's verdict in the northern state of Penang might be the first time in recent memory that a convert has been permitted to legally renounce Islam in this Muslim-majority nation.

A rising number of disputes about religious conversions has sparked anxiety among minorities - predominantly Buddhist, Christian and Hindu - because in the past courts virtually always ruled against people seeking to leave Islam.

Penang's Shariah court, however, granted Ms Siti Fatimah Tan Abdullah's request to be declared a non-Muslim. She embraced Islam in 1998 because she wanted to marry an Iranian, but claimed she never truly practiced the religion.

'I am very happy,' Ms Siti, a 39-year-old ethnic Chinese cake seller, told The Associated Press by telephone. 'I want to go to the temple to pray and give thanks.'

The Shariah court, which governs Muslims' personal conduct and religious lives, ruled that Ms Siti's husband and Islamic authorities failed to give her proper religious advice.

'So you can't blame her for her ignorance of the teachings and wanting to convert out,' said Mr Ahmad Munawir Abdul Aziz, a lawyer for the Islamic Affairs Council in Penang.

Ms Siti must still ask the government registration department to have her name and religion changed back on her identification papers. She was not expected to face any problems, because the court ruled in her favour.

'It's a landmark decision,' said Ms Siti's lawyer, Mr Ahmad Jailani Abdul Ghani.

Ms Siti filed her request in 2006 after her husband left her. She was subsequently ordered to undergo counseling to ensure she truly understood Islam.

Malaysia's most high-profile conversion case was that of Ms Lina Joy, a woman who was born to Muslim parents and failed to get the Federal Court, Malaysia's top civil court, to recognise her conversion to Christianity last year.

Malaysia has a dual court system with civil courts for non-Muslims and Shariah courts for Muslims. In interfaith disputes involving Islam, the Shariah courts typically get the last word, which has upset non-Muslims who fear they cannot get justice in such courts.

Court disputes that ended in favour of Muslims have caused minorities to worry that their rights have become subordinate to those of ethnic Malay Muslims, who make up nearly 60 per cent of Malaysia's 27 million people.

Political observers say religious grievances contributed to the governing coalition's poor performance in March elections, in which the coalition lost its two-thirds majority in Parliament. -- AP


http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest%2...ry_235285.html

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People don't plan to fail... They fail to plan.

fathernature

so gd ah. cool!

Fathernature is a lady

shypineapple

hmmm... o.o

I know i screwed it up but I will love you forever.
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T-Rex

Can't believe that some people can't make up their minds on religion.

platform

hmm..at least they allow her to change

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Need a way to transfer funds? >
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Huaikong

case to case basis ba.....

n_o_r_i_k_o

ooh.. can convert le~~
good lo~~ lol..

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fathernature

i tot they cannot convert back de?

Fathernature is a lady

*StarDust*

This is a high profile case. Of course, the newly formed government would be looking at this case.

CaRe

M'sian muslims protest ruling on renunciation of Islam


Siti (above), a cook, told the court she had never practised Islamic teachings since converting in 1998 to marry Iranian Ferdoun Ashanian. -- PHOTO: NSTP

PENANG (Malaysia) - A GROUP of Muslims in Malaysia's northern Penang state staged a protest on Friday to denounce an Islamic sharia court's rare ruling allowing a Chinese convert to renounce her faith.

Last week the Penang Sharia Court allowed 38-year-old Siti Fatimah Tan Abdullah, or Tan Ean Huang, to renounce Islam and return to Buddhism.

Siti, a cook, told the court she had never practised Islamic teachings since converting in 1998 to marry Iranian Ferdoun Ashanian.

The couple married in 1999 but her husband left her months later and she filed for renunciation two years ago.

Hizbut Tahrir Malaysia, an Islamic hardline group, gathered outside the court and submitted a memorandum urging a judicial review of the decision.

'We outrightly disagree with the court decision as it is against Islamic laws. In Islam, a person who insists on leaving the religion must be punished with death,' the group's president Abdul Hakim Othman told reporters.

Apostasy, or renouncing the faith, is one of the gravest sins in Islam and a very sensitive issue in Malaysia where Islamic sharia courts have rarely allowed such renunciations and have also jailed apostates.

Islam is the official religion of Malaysia, where more than 60 per cent of its 27 million people are Muslim Malays.

The Islamic sharia courts operate in parallel to civil courts but apply specifically to Muslims. -- AFP