Yahoo!  My Yahoo!  Mail
				News Home - Help

News Home Top Stories World Asia Pacific Business Technology Entertainment Sports Photos -- News by Country -- Indonesia Malaysia Philippines Singapore Thailand -- Greater Asia -- China Hong Kong Taiwan
	Yahoo! Asia News Search Yahoo! News

		advertisement
Wednesday May 30, 5:30 PM Malaysia woman loses appeal on religion Photo: AFP PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia(AFP) - Malaysia's top secular court on Wednesday rejected a woman's bid to be legally recognised as Christian after converting from Islam, saying the matter must be decided by a religious court. Lina Joy, 43, had sought to have the word "Islam" removed from her national identity card but the Federal Court threw out her case, deciding that only an Islamic sharia tribunal could legally certify her conversion. Renouncing the faith is one of the gravest sins in Islam, and Joy's case has raised questions about religious freedom here as well as the exact legal relationship between the mainly Muslim country's secular and religious courts. "Apostasy is within the powers of the Islamic law and the sharia courts. Civil courts cannot interfere," Federal Court Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim said in the majority decision. "In short, she cannot, at her own whim, simply enter or leave her religion... She must follow rules." Joy, an ethnic Muslim Malay born Azlina Jailani, had argued she should not be bound by the Islamic courts because she is now a Christian. The ruling comes amid mounting racial and religious tensions in multiracial Malaysia, where minority religious groups fear their rights are being undermined, even though the country is traditionally seen as moderate. "God is great!" a crowd of about 200 people, who had been holding a mass prayer, shouted in unison outside the court complex when they learned of the verdict. Islam is Malaysia's official religion. More than 60 percent of the nation's 27 million people are Muslim Malays. But while the constitution defines the ethnic majority Malays as Muslims it also guarantees freedom of religion. The country's minority Chinese and Indians are mostly Buddhists, Hindus or Christians. Joy's appeal to the Federal Court centred on whether she must go to a sharia court to have her renunciation recognised before authorities delete the word "Islam" from her identity card. The chief justice said the National Registration Department (NRD), in charge of issuing identity cards, had the right to demand that the sharia court certify Joy's conversion. But the only non-Muslim judge on the three-member judicial panel disagreed. Judge Richard Malanjum said the NRD's demand was "discriminatory and unconstitutional," and it was unreasonable to expect a person to "self-incriminate" herself before a sharia court. "In some states in Malaysia, apostasy is a criminality," Malanjum said. Sharia courts have been loath to approve apostasy. Malaysia's civil courts operate in parallel to sharia courts for Muslims in areas of family law including divorce, child custody and inheritance. But the question of which takes precedence has been unclear in cases that involve both Muslims and non-Muslims, who have little say in sharia courts. Joy fears retaliation from Muslim groups and was not present in court. Her lawyers refused comment on the verdict. But opposition lawmaker Teresa Kok, of the Democratic Action Party (DAP), said it was "a setback against religious freedom." She called for a constitutional amendment to entrench the civil courts' superiority over sharia courts. Lawyers and human rights activists who monitored the decision agreed it has not settled anything. "The Federal Court, the apex court of the country, is divided over this issue, as the country is divided on this issue," said Zainah Anwar, of Sisters in Islam, a rights group for Muslim women. Yusri Mohamad, president of the Malaysian Islamic Youth Movement, welcomed the verdict. He said Joy's appeal to the Federal Court should be seen as part of an effort to revamp Malaysia's balance between Muslims and non-Muslims. "We hope that we have seen the last of such an attempt," he said. "This decision should not be perceived as a victory for Muslims and a loss to non-Muslims."