Lina Joy

As many have expected the Malaysian Federal court’s 2-1 decision on Lina Joy’s case is a no brainer, after almost six years of legal wrangling Lina Joy@Azlina Jailani , a born Malay Muslim cannot delete the word Islam from her Malaysian identity(IC) card.

The most famous Christian convert in the country, now 43, converted to Christianity at the age of 26 ,to marry her Christian cook boyfriend and she’d followed the various legal steps to delete the word Islam from her IC card after her conversion.

While the National Registration Department allowed her the name change, they were not too sure whether they could delete the religion she was born into from the IC, hence the basis of this court case.To add more to the confusion, Malaysian legal system runs on a parallel path, Syariah courts are for Muslims especially on matters pertaining to family law and religion and Civil Courts for the non-Muslims.

It is fine if all parties involved in a family dispute, for example, are of the same faith, in a multi-cultural and multi-religious society such as ours, things get complicated when one party is Muslim and the other is not.Which court system has the precedence over which to the satisfaction of all parties concerned?

The Federal Constitution says a Malay must be a Muslim, speak Malay, and habitually follow Malay customs.It never talks about ethnicity so, a person of Indian origins can qualifiy if the above conditions are met. But an ethnic Malay,meaning a native of the archipelago,who is not a Muslim is not a Malay. While the contradictions on this definition are obvious, but, the intentions are very clear.

This definition has more to do with politics rather than with religion per se. Malaysia is just about half Muslim, this is rather precarious , as the balance can tilt either way if the Muslim component of the country is allowed to be loose and fluid. Any perceived challenge to this status quo is seen as a threat by the powers that be as they seek to maintain the early Malay-Muslim character of the land. Islam is also made the official religion and there can be no propagation of other religions among Malays either.The control is rather tight.

If you wish to leave the Muslim religion you must get the green light from the Syariah Courts. It does not count that it is your free choice, even if the Koran talks about no complusion in religion, it does not matter. The people in charge will put you away and try to rehabilitate you. Lina Joy probably thought it would be nice to test the system in respect of her human rights. Now, it is clear that the Syariah courts are supreme to the Civil courts in matters such as this. Is this constitutionally right? The debate has yet to stop.

The minority judgement of chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Richard Malanjun that no court or authority should be easily allowed to have implied powers to curtail rights that are constitutionally granted is a food for thought for all freedom loving Malaysians.

If Lina still insists on the deletion, she has to start all over with the Syariah Courts to get them to declare that she is no longer a Muslim. This is the law of the country and this is her only option.

It is very obvious for Muslims if they wish to leave their religion,they have do it quietly. If they still want to stay in the country after changing their religion, they have to be a closet Buddhist, a closet Christian whatever, but, they know they will never have peace until the day they die . Is that so? some of you may snigger, look at the bodies that have been dug up for being buried in the ‘wrong’ cemetery you ‘d say. You are dead right, the best option is to pack up and leave the country.

It is strange, Lina’s photo has never been published in the local papers. Many do not know how she looks like. Is there such a person? Maybe, this is for her own good,there are too many intolerant people out there .

I understand Lina is overseas now,this is the best option for her considering the circumstances. As a Malaysian, I can’t say I am proud that she has to leave the country to live with her own conscience. Free as a bird somewhere else, but not in her own country!??

This is not the first case of Muslims changing their religion in this country and it won’t be the last either.