Malaysia's top civil court, the Federal Court on Wednesday rejected a woman's appeal to be recognized as a Christian, in a landmark case that tested the limits of religious freedom in this moderate Islamic country.
Lina Joy, 43, was born as Azlina Jailani. She started attending church in 1990 and was baptised eight years later. She was given permission to change her name, but "Islam" remained as her religion on her identity card.
She had applied for a name change on her government identity card. The National Registration Department obliged but refused to drop Muslim from the religion column.
She appealed the decision to a civil court but was told she must take it to Islamic Shariah courts. Joy argued that she should not be bound by Shariah law because she is a Christian.
A three-judge Federal Court panel ruled by a 2-1 majority that only the Islamic Shariah Court has the power to allow her to remove the word "Islam" from the religion category on her government identity card.
"She cannot simply at her own whims enter or leave her religion," Judge Ahmad Fairuz said. "She must follow rules."
As a muslim I found the verdict of this case rather intriguing.
There is no compulsion in Islam... (Qur'an 2:256). God has commanded that there is no compulsion in religion for truth stands out from error.
Lina Joy, a Christian has made a choice and left Islam many years back. The only Islam left for her is the print on her identity card. It has nothing to do with the conviction of her faith.
Therefore, for the mortal Judge Ahmad Fairuz to insist that she cannot leave Islam is meaningless because she already has.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment