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Rock n' Roll Doggie
http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/200207160032841.php
Note: UMNO is the ruling party of Malaysia, led by PM Dr Mahathir. PAS is the more hard-line Muslim opposition.
Excerpt:
In addition, minors (18 and under) in Malaysia are bound to their parents' religion, according to a local Act.
(ARRRGH)
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Note: UMNO is the ruling party of Malaysia, led by PM Dr Mahathir. PAS is the more hard-line Muslim opposition.
Excerpt:
The Barisan Nasional government, or rather Umno, on the other hand forbids any Malay from giving up the religion he/she was born into, i.e. Islam, considers it a very serious crime, and is discouraging this measure at all costs by a strict enforcement measure through the religious authorities.
But in the eyes of many, Umno is doing this more to preserve and safeguard its political interests rather than the religious well-being of the Malay Malaysians. Though the civil law of the land derived from British laws to which Umno subscribes is not framed in such a way as to punish Muslims who choose to forsake Islam, Umno through the Islamic authorities have cracked down very hard on such people.
Thus the very few Malay Malaysians who ever dared to venture out of their religion have been harassed, intimidated and ostracised to make them repent and return to the fold of the ummah (community). While many of those who ?strayed? have succumbed to the pressure, others have chosen not to, and are paying a heavy price.
One of these is Jamaluddin Othman better known as Yeshua Jamaluddin, a Malay Malaysian born a Muslim, but converted to Christianity. He was among those arrested under the ISA in the 1987 Operation Lallang with more than a hundred politicians, educationists and civil right movement leaders.
While in detention he was severely abused and tortured, forced to reenact the Crucifixion, but he steadfastly stuck to his faith, reading the Bible and singing hymns for inspiration. Jamaluddin filed a habeas corpus writ and the then independent judiciary, looking at the case from a legal point of view, decided that the appellant's freedom to profess any religion did not threaten national security as documented in the directive for his ISA detention.
As such, there were no grounds to detain him and the judges ordered his release from ISA detention in October 1988. The present whereabouts of Jamaluddin are unknown and he is thought to have left the country.
But he has written a book called Circumcision of the heart to document his experience under ISA detention.
I have personally come across many Malay Malaysians who given the choice, would prefer not to be Muslims, for a variety of reasons, especially the restrictions that Islam (relative to other religions) imposes on them. But they dare not speak their minds openly for fear of the severe intimidation through the religious authorities.
They feel that in the age of modernity and globalisation compatible with democracy, they as matured adults, should be allowed to choose their own religion like everyone else ? and not have to be told to take a certain path to God by people who claim such a divine right ? as in the by-gone dark era of the Middle Ages, replete with bloody religious wars such as the Crusades in the Holy Land, the Ottoman subjugation of Eastern Europe and the Inquisition in Spain.
Others especially Muslim women, feel that they ought to follow the faith of their non-Muslim husbands rather than the other way round, which is what is happening in Malaysia.
Many also feel that Malay Malaysians are just as human as anyone else, subject to human frailties, and as such find difficulty in coping with the restrictions imposed on them by Islam. They point to the fact that the rate of crimes like incest, adultery and drug addiction among Malay Malaysians is the highest in the country despite the harsh punishments Islam metes out against such crimes. It is a reflection of the explosion of their suppressed feelings.
Had it not been for the politicisation of Islam in Malaysia by Umno and PAS, apostasy would not have been a crime among Malay Malaysians. It would merely be regarded as the exercise of one of the basic tenets of human rights, the freedom of the individual to choose his own religion.
In addition, minors (18 and under) in Malaysia are bound to their parents' religion, according to a local Act.
(ARRRGH)
foray