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January 24, 2006

Malaysia: Muslim Court Allows Apostate To Be Buried As Buddhist

Reports from the Malaysia Star and Associated Press via Al Jazeera describe the decision by a Syariah (Sharia or Islamic Law) court in Malaysia to allow a woman born into a Muslim family to be buried as a non-Muslim.

In any Western country such news would be unimportant, but in Malaysia's bizarre constitution, all Malays are deemed Muslim. The constitution, as we discussed earlier is contradictory.

Ostensibly people have the freedom to practice any religion. Article 11 gives citizens the right to profess and practise any religion they choose. Article 3 states that Islam is the official religion of the state, but Article 3 (1) of the constitution states that 'other religions may be practiced in peace and harmony in any part of the Federation'.

However, Article 121 (1A) of the constitution rules that the Islamic courts are not to be affected by decisions in a civil court.This clause states that civil courts have no jurisdiction on "any matter" which already falls within the scope of the Syariah or Islamic courts.

The case of people being classed as Muslims is complicated by the issue of apostasy. Cases where people have tried to leave Islam have to receive permission from an Islamic court, and such permission is universally denied. The Straits Times from Sept 20 2005 stated that a sharia court has never granted permission for a Malaysian Muslim to convert out of Islam.

When Lina Joy decided to officially apostasise, after her conversion to Christianity in the late 1980s, she took the case to a sharia court.

The court said in September last year she was free to practice the religion of her choosing, as is constitutionally stated, but her identity card states that she is a Muslim, and therefore cannot marry a Christian (and who thought apartheid was finished?).

Joy, originally named Azlina Jailani before her apostasy, first applied to the National Registration Department in February 1997 to have her status as "Muslim" removed from her identity card. In August, she was told that she did not have official Sharia permission to leave Islam. In 1998, she was allowed to register her new name, but she was still officially a "Muslim".

She took her case to the court of appeal, being heard in October 2004, and in September 19, 2005 it was rejected. The civil court ruled that she had to apply to the Sharia Court to apply to leave Islam.

The current news that a "designated" Muslim has been allowed by a Sharia court to be buried with Buddhist rites is being touted by Islamists as a sign that the current unjust system of law in the country is perfectly fair.

Muhamad Burok, president of the Malaysian Syariah Lawyers Association stated: "It shows that our two court systems - the Civil Court and Syariah Court - can exist in harmony, so the issue that the Constitution should be amended does not arise. The decision shows that everyone can get protection from all the courts."

This case, involving Nyonya Tahir (pictured above) comes on the heels of the scandal on December 28 where a Malaysian national hero, Manian Moorthy, who was a Hindu was declared in his last weeks of life by an Islamic court to be a Muslim, was buried Islamically, against the protests of his Hindu wife. The judge said that he had "no power" to change the decision of the Syariah courts on issues involving apostasy.  That case brought international condemnation.

So Muhamad Burok is being disingenuous if he thinks that the burial of Nyonya Tahir in a burial plot of her family's choosing makes up for glaring contradictions and bias against Muslim apostates contained in the constitution. In a democracy, where one can choose who leads the country at an election, the ability to abandon one particular faith and elect another should be a fundamental right.

Nyonya Tahir died on Thursday (19 Jan), aged 89 years. Her life began as a Muslim Malay, but she was raised as a Chinese by her Malay grandmother who had married a Chinese convert to Islam.

When Nyonya married Chiang Meng, a Chinese, in 1936 she was already living by Chinese customs, and after marriage practiced Buddhism. In Malaysia's Nazi-style ethnic labeling, all of their eight children were registered as Chinese.

Nyonya's identity card said she was a Muslim, and when she died the funeral was postponed by Islamic authorities, until the case was heard in court. Chiang Kwai Ying, Nyonya's daughter, said her mother had attempted to have her name officially changed but had been refused. The Islamic court ruled on Monday (yesterday) that Nyonya Tahir could be laid to rest according to Buddhist principles.

Burok said the ruling "gives great hope to non-Muslims that they can find justice in the Islamic system. We hope non-Muslims will now understand that their fears are not justified."

This is extremely doubtful. The only positive thing about this case (which was hurtful to the family by intruding at the time of a funeral) is that it has set a precedent. It is the first time someone designated officially as a Muslim has been allowed to apostasise officially, even though it happened posthumously, having been denied to her while she was alive and requested it.

It is also the first time that a Sharia court has heard evidence from non Muslims, Chiang Kwai Ying and Chiang Ah Fatt, two of Nyonya's children.

The problems of the constitution remain, despite this case. Never before have Sharia courts allowed apostasy, and as Wong Kim Kong of the Consultative Council for Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and Sikhism states: "There is no guarantee that what happened in Nyonya's case will happen again."

The issue of apostasy being handled by Islamic courts who do not allow apostasy, the automatic designation of Malays as Muslim, stated on identity cards issued at the age of 12 onwards, and the ability of Sharia courts to punish apostates with imprisonment is an injustice, to Muslims as well as non-Muslims. It makes Malaysia's claims to democracy appear like a huge, sick joke.

Many states have already adopted the Control and Restriction Bill, which gives a fine of 10,000 ringit ($2,653) or imprisonment for up to one year for "persuading, influencing a Muslim to leave Islam for another religion."

One can also be imrisoned by a sharia court for "belittling Islam", and this has been used to punish people who wish to apostasise from Islam, as in the case of the Sky Kingdom Sect, where individuals such as Kamariah Ali have battled for 7 years to be allowed to leave Islam, and have been imprisoned for their pains.

Islam, when legally sanctioned, is always tyrannical. Malaysia's fascistic identity card system and its despotic Islamists in the sharia courts are only proving how legally-institutionalised religion, with its powers unrestricted by civil courts of law, can never coexist with true democracy.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at January 24, 2006 10:15 AM

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