Freedom of Faith in Malaysia

I've come across these article about the freedom of faith in Malaysia. I shall not discuss about my point of view here, and let the article address the experience every non-Muslim Malaysians feel.

According to Reuters, the country's Shariah courts generally do not allow Muslims to formally renounce Islam, preferring to send what they consider to be apostates for counseling. They even fine or jail them.
Fundamental right denied

Joy is not alone in her problems. Last year BBC radio broadcast a report on the problems faced by Christian converts in Malaysia. According to a report on the program published by the BBC last Nov. 15, many converts are obliged to lead a secret, double life. "If people know that I've converted to Christianity, they might take the law into their own hands. If they are not broadminded, they might take a stone and throw it at me," said Maria, one of the converts interviewed by the BBC.

I personally know a friend who was born into this religion instead of embracing it out of her own choice. She doesn't have a choice of following her faith, but rather has to follow one of the parents' choice. Hence the whole family is into this religion, because one of the parents has faith in it though the rest of the siblings and their mum does not.

However, Malaysia's government will not change the law, since the ruling UMNO party fears the political power of the Islamic PAS party and for years has been playing to Islamist sentiments. Emigration is the only safe alternative, one often taken by converts. Indeed, after the judicial decision, Joy said she might leave her country. For the judges denied her the "simple but important fundamental right that exists in all persons: Namely, the right to believe in the religion of one's choice."

Thus, in Malaysia today religion is a matter of ethnicity, fixed for all time. Sharia courts do not allow people to abandon Islam. But the decision puts all non-Muslims at risk. "It casts a large shadow on civil liberties and the constitutional rights of Malaysians," complains opposition politician Lim Kit Siang. The decision was a "very regressive interpretation of the constitution," said S. Sharmila, secretary-general of the National Human Rights Society.

Here's the two articles published in Assyrian International News Agency:

1. http://www.aina.org/news/20070610124628.htm
2. http://www.aina.org/news/20070610181207.htm