Several years ago, Lina Joy filled out a government form to receive her identification card. There were fields on the card such as name, address, height and religion. Yes. You heard me right. Lina had to put her religion on an identification card. She wrote in Islam. They printed it on her card.
Then she became a Christian.
For the past six years, Lina has been fighting the government of Malaysia to get her religion changed on her identification card. Today, the court rejected her request, and ruled that she is Muslim and will remain Muslim. They said "you can't at whim and fancy convert from one religion to another." Actually, the person I quoted is a a Federal Court Chief Justice named Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim. Does anyone else sense a conflict of interest here?
You may wonder why this is important. Why should she care what her identification card says anyways, I mean, we're just talking about a religious belief, right? Well, in Malaysia, those who have Islam on their identification cards are ruled according to Sharia, the Muslim rule of law. According to the way Malaysia implements Sharia, a Muslim cannot marry a Christian by law. Thus, Lina cannot marry her boyfriend. This is heartbreaking. Could you imagine going to the courthouse to apply for a marriage license, only to be told that according to the religion you wrote down on your card, you're not allowed to marry your lover? Malaysia has no respect for the personal pursuit of happiness.
To make matters worse, Lina has already been disowned by her family and has had to quit her job as a computer salesman.
Please pray for Lina and her boyfriend. Pray that God's peace may surround them in their struggles. Pray for Malaysia, that basic human rights, the rights that should be most fundamentally recognized in any country would be realized. Pray that Malaysia, and other governments that abuse their power and their people would be brought low.
It baffles my mind, the things that humans do to each other.
"Justice" Tun Dato' Sri Ahmad Fairuz bin Dato' Sheikh Abdul Halim, you should be ashamed of yourself.
Read the complete article here.
I took the liberty of noting this ruling here.
30 May 2007
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1 comments:
This article really saddened me since I have been to Malaysia and found the people there so engaging. It's hard to see how religiously bound they are. I read several other articles about Lina Joy after and several noted that even if she were brave enough to marry her Christian boyfriend, her fear was that her children would be considered Muslim and that they could easily be taken away from her. What a sad comment on the Malaysian society and what their "laws" would allow.
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