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Lina Joy, the woman at the centre of an important religious rights case in Malaysia, is disappointed that the country’s highest court refused to recognise her conversion from Islam to Christianity.
"I am disappointed that the Federal Court is not able to vindicate a simple but important fundamental right that exists in all persons," she said, according to her lawyer, Benjamin Dawson.Joy was referring to the right to believe in the religion of one's choice, and the right to marry a person of one's choosing.
She cannot legally marry her Christian partner because Malaysian law requires non-Muslims to convert to Islam to wed a Muslim.
"The Federal Court has not only denied me that right but to all Malaysians who value fundamental freedoms," Joy said.
The court ceded jurisdiction in the matter to an Islamic shari’a tribunal, which is hardly likely to render impartial justice. She would almost certainly be punished for “apostasy”. In any case, since she is now a Christian, Ms Joy rejects the authority of Islamic courts.
She refused to rule out the possibility that she may emigrate.
Previous related post: Lina Joy loses bid for legal recognition of religious conversion
What a sad day for Malaysia. The court verdict against Lina Joy has destroyed her bid to have her religious choice be seen as a matter of personal conscience rather than a state imposed obligation. Whilst the angry young men rejoice and shout “Allah-o-Akbar”, the Muslim religion again trumps the constitution and provides yet another early indication of the cracks forming in this previously rights based democracy.
This verdict and other sad cases such as that of Subashini Rajasperhaps, may mean that the country’s tourist promotion board needs to rework its “Truly Asia” campaign. Perhaps now they need to market as ‘Malaysia truly Arabia’. Actually the government sometime back removed its English street names so it should be no problem for them to re-brand KL as the centre of “ASIARABIA” and perhaps they could call it ‘Riyadh Lumpur’. Oh yes and of course Putrajaya could become Meccaminor.
Now get the tune in the head and its… Malaysia…. truly Arabia… yessssirrrr sounds great.
Ric
http://caliibre.blogspot.com/
[...] Malaysian media forbidden to report debate over Islamic state By StatGuy When Malaysia gained independence from Britain in 1957, it was established as a secular state. Last week, however, Malaysia’s deputy prime minister Najib Razak stated that Malaysia was not secular but Muslim, although it provides safeguards for minority religions. (Tell that to Lina Joy.) [...]