A reader writes:
The Malaysian federal court has rejected professed Catholic Lina Joy’s appeal to change her stated religion from ‘Muslim’ to ‘Christian’ on her identity card. If she still persist to change her religion, she will need to apply for apostasy with the Syariah court, which the Syariah law forbids.
Please help to make available this news to your readers as this would help the world to know more about the suppression of religious freedom in Malaysia. It would be a great help to Lina herself.
I’d be happy to let people know about it and to ask for prayers for her and all in Malaysia and elsewhere in the Muslim world who wish to become Christian. The unsettling thing is that Malaysia is among the more progressive countries in the Muslim world when it comes to this issue.
EXCERPT:
In practice, sharia courts do not allow Muslims to formally renounce Islam, preferring to send apostates to counseling and, ultimately, fining or jailing them if they do not desist.
They often end up in legal limbo, unable to register their new religious affiliations or legally marry non-Muslims. Many keep silent about their choice or emigrate.
Lina Joy, 43, was born Azlina Jailani and was brought up as a Muslim, but at the age of 26 decided to become a Christian. She wants to marry her Christian boyfriend, a cook, but she cannot do so while her identity card declares her to me Muslim.
In 1999, the registration department allowed her to change the name in her identity card to Lina Joy but the entry for her religion remained "Islam."
Malaysia, like neighboring Indonesia, practices a moderate brand of Islam, but Muslims account for only a bare majority of Malaysia’s population and are very sensitive to any perceived threats to Islam’s special status as the official religion.
Malaysia has been under Islamic influence since the 15th century, but big waves of Chinese and Indian immigrants over the last 150 years has dramatically changed its racial and religious make-up. Now, about 40 percent of Malaysians are non-Muslim.