Malaysia makes its case on
conversion By Ioannis Gatsiounis
JOHOR BAHRU, Malaysia - In multi-ethnic
Malaysia, where Islam is the official religion but
freedom of religion is guaranteed under the
constitution, recent developments regarding apostasy for
Muslims are posing challenges, not only for religious
freedom in the country, but for democracy in general.
Malaysia bills itself as a democracy, and
according the constitution, it is - despite the fact
that former premier Mahathir Mohamad deemed it an
Islamic state in 2001. Here, the majority Malays are
born Muslim and changing religions is all but impossible
for them. Cases of aspiring apostates are handled by
Sharia rather than civil courts, and according to the
Koran, which states that no Muslim should assist another
out of the religion, conversion to another faith is
grounds for death.
What is seen by some as an
issue of freedom of religion is viewed by others as an
abuse of freedom. "You can talk about your religion
freely, just don't try to convert," said Azizuddin
Ahmad, secretary general of the Muslim Youth Group of
Malaysia (ABIM). He said many Muslim apostates were led
astray not by the virtue of the faith they were
converting to, but by the concept of freedom.
Islam is arguably the most democratic of all
religions. An essay titled "The Truth about Islam"
states that in Islam, "All persons are equal before God;
goodness is the only criterion of worth." But in
Malaysia, jurisdiction of civil courts and Sharia courts
is sometimes unclear, and when this happens the
religion's democratic nature is compromised.
It
is illegal, for instance, for the Bible and other
Christian materials to be printed in the national
language, Bahasa Malay. Proselytizing of Muslims by
non-Muslims is also forbidden (though the reverse is
okay). And proselytizers have been put away under the
Internal Securities Act (ISA), which allows for
indefinite detention without trial.
Authorities
have begun to crack down on converts, restricting their
activities in order to prevent them from introducing
Malays to Christian doctrine. Appeals for conversion
usually sit unheard, and many would-be apostates don't
live to see their conversion officially recognized. As
one religious scholar put it, "In Malaysia, there's a
way into Islam, but no way out."
A question
of religious freedom In Malaysia, Muslims are
bound by certain laws that non-Muslims are not; laws
regarding alcohol consumption, sexual relations and
marriage, for instance. Certain states are known to
enforce these laws more than others.
Muslims
also get some preferential treatment. According to the
US government's International Religious Freedom Report
for 2003, "It is official policy to 'infuse Islamic
values' into the administration of the country."
Non-Muslims sometimes face difficulties in
obtaining licensing and state funding for their places
of worship; Hindus have had difficulty getting
government funding for their temples and there have been
instances when the government has denied Hindu groups
permission to use school classrooms after school hours
for meetings. Members of the Buddhist community have
also complained of the lengthy process involved in
getting permits to build their temples.
In some
areas, such as Brickfields in Kuala Lumpur, one can find
mosques next to churches next to Indian and Buddhist
temples. But non-Muslims still live in a country whose
new Islamic-themed administrative capital houses a
prominent mosque but no other house of worship; a
country that since the early 1980s has become
increasingly Islamized - inspired first by the Iranian
Revolution and Mahathir's former charismatic deputy
Anwar Ibrahim, who founded ABIM and joined Malaysia's
most powerful political party, the United Malays
National Organization (UMNO) in the 1980s; and then by
government attempts to out-Islamize the hardline Parti
Islam seMalaysia (PAS). PAS made substantial progress in
1999 parliamentary elections but suffered badly in its
rematch with the ruling National Front (BN) coalition in
March.
The tide of these developments has posed
challenges for non-Muslims and apostates, said lawyer
Lee Min Choon, "but they are not paralyzing". Lee said
he believes the government's religious policy is,
generally, conducted with the best of intentions. "The
government doesn't have a program to create difficulties
for other religions. They want peace for all religions."
That has been the tricky part. Malaysia is home
to various ethnicities and religions, with sizable
Indian and Chinese minorities, many of whom embrace
Hinduism and Buddhism respectively, and indigenous
tribes in the east on the island of Borneo, where
Christianity is widely embraced. These groups often
grumble about "Malay/Muslim bias". But then the
government can't afford to be seen as anti-Muslim.
Let the courts decide This point was
made last week, when Malaysian courts handed down two
decisions that centered on freedom, equality, apostasy
and religion. Both were expected to resolve much but
may, in the end, prove to settle very little.
The first case involved a married Hindu couple.
The husband converted to Islam in 2002 - no problem
there - but what drew national attention to the case is
that according to the wife, her husband also converted
their two children to Islam, without her consent. The
marriage has since ended, but when the wife filed for
custodial rights with a civil court, it ruled that only
a Sharia court could decide on her children's custodial
rights because they are Muslim. In April, a Sharia court
upheld the children's conversion and awarded custody to
the father.
According to Noor Aziah Mohd Awal, a
law professor at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, "Any
case dealing with Muslims goes to Sharia court." But the
mother could not testify in Sharia court because she is
not Muslim. Sharia law is prescribed by the Koran. Many
Muslim countries have courts set up to apply this law -
in family and religious matters - to the lives of
Muslims; interpretation, however, is sometimes a point
of controversy.
On July 20, however, a high
court granted custodial rights to the mother (and actual
custody to both parents). This, said Noor Aziah, sets a
precedent that civil courts should decide on custodial
cases involving a Muslim and non-Muslim parent. But it
doesn't resolve which court should preside over cases
involving children who have been converted to Islam
without mutual consent of their parents.
"The
law needs to be amended," Noor Aziah said, "whereby both
parties can go to the same court." She suggested that
such a court include one Sharia-court judge, one
civil-court judge and a non-affiliated chairman.
Although this latest case is cause for
celebration, "division of jurisdiction was only
partially resolved", said Shad Salem Faruq, professor of
law at the University of Technology MARA. "It appears
religion was abused by one party, and may be again, and
that's not in the spirit of Islam."
In a
separate case last Wednesday, the Malaysian Federal
Court ruled that four Muslim apostates did not have the
absolute right to renounce their faith of Islam, in
effect suspending "one's right to choose his religion",
the appellants' lawyer, Haris Mohamed Ibrahim, told Asia
Times Online.
In 2000, the appellants were
charged for attempting to renounce Islam two years
earlier and were sentenced to three years in jail for
contempt of court. The four apostates declared that the
Sharia courts didn't have jurisdiction over them because
they were no longer Muslims. They were originally
charged with "deviant practices" inconsistent with the
teachings of Islam, and the court decided that because
they were still technically Muslims at the time in
question - their appeals for apostasy had not been
granted - they would be charged as Muslims.
"We
hoped the courts would resolve problems individuals are
facing," Ibrahim said, "but the court declined to answer
a landmark issue."
According to Faruq, the
decision clashes with the international view that
freedom of religion should be universally granted. And
the issue of whether multi-ethnic Malaysia, should cater
more to Islamic or international standards of law, is
all but certain to remain a hot point of debate here.
So far, the government has appeased the various
communities enough to prevent large-scale race- and
religious-fueled violence - though at the expense of
respect, interest and meaningful interaction between the
various communities. Race and religion are taboo
subjects here, and there's a lot of pent-up rage.
Hands off our Muslims This is all the
Malay-headed government is trying to say. More
specifically, said Faruq, it is Christian proselytizing
the government is most worried about. Malaysia, where
Muslims make up 60% of the population, is also home to
substantial Hindu and Buddhist minorities (6% and 20%
respectively). "But Hinduism and Buddhism historically
have had less of a tradition of proselytizing than
Christianity," Faruq said.
Although Christians
comprise around 9% of the population, it is illegal for
certain Christian material to be printed in the national
language, and some states restrict Christians from using
the Malay language for certain religious terms, such as
"Allah" (God), lest Muslims be confused.
Despite
the obstacles, some Christian proselytizers are busy.
Reverend Kumar (not his real name) said it's still fresh
in his mind the night the ISA police rattled his front
gate in the middle of the night. The warning was clear,
though it has not stopped Kumar. "I am not afraid," he
said. "My work is God's will and I have a worthy cause
to fight for. [Malays] have a right to find Jesus."
His evangelical church has 12 branches
throughout Malaysia and 30 affiliates. Kumar estimates
that 100 Muslims are converting to Christianity every
month in Malaysia. He says there has been a marked
increase in interest since the September 11, 2001,
terrorist attacks in the United States. "In the
kampongs [villages] more people have opened their
hearts to our message, and more people are coming to see
us," he said.
Christian groups estimate that
there are 30,000 Malay converts in Malaysia. Some Muslim
groups put the figure much lower, but then, say
non-denominational observers, most converts are said to
live in secrecy for fear of harassment from the
government, family and fellow Malays.
One Malay
convert and former ustaza (Muslim religious
teacher), now a colleague of Reverend Kumar, recalls
being ejected from her family for five years for
converting to Christianity. Her family has since
forgiven her, but she and her children continue to be
harried by the authorities. Because she is Malay, her
son was born Muslim and forced to adopt a Muslim name.
In school, despite his protests that he is a Christian,
he is forced to sit through Islamic studies, as all
Muslims are required to do.
In her opinion, "The
[authorities] have begun to really clamp down on
converts." She has had her run-ins with the ISA police.
Her phone was tapped recently. Last year, five
religious-police officers came to her home and insisted
that she stop her activities.
Her activities,
she said, included assisting drug addicts and battered
women in rehabilitation centers. She is now forbidden to
do so.
Part of the assisting, though, included
introducing Malays and other non-Christians to Christian
doctrine. She admitted to parking herself at a
McDonald's wearing a Muslim headscarf to introduce
Muslim schoolgirls to the Malay-language Bible more
effectively.
In Kuala Lumpur, boys who are a
part of Reverend Kumar's proselytizing movement frequent
mosques. And in the cramped lobby of Kumar's
headquarters a magazine headline reads, "Storming the
Enemy's Stronghold". The first paragraph explains,
"Within the 10/40 window [referring to the area
stretching roughly from the Middle East through India,
China and into Southeast Asia] lie 62 of the least
evangelized nations on this planet." Put another way,
this area is viewed by some zealots as the last
stronghold preventing Christian global dominance.
With proselytizing of this nature, one is left
to wonder, is the Malay-led government rightfully
fearful or just plain paranoid?
Christians
justify proselytizing Some Christian groups say
the government has become more zealously Islamic. Some
local governments are known to prevent the construction
of any buildings above four stories so the dome of the
mosque can be seen from afar. Procession was banned in
at least one instance because it conflicted with Muslim
prayer time. Said an assistant to Reverend Kumar, "These
gestures are causing some hard feelings."
As is
likely of Christian proselytizing. Proselytizers of any
stripe tend to feel justified in their actions,
rationalizing them as a form of salvation leading others
astray from darkness. Meanwhile, these people are often
blinded by their desire to control. But some Christian
proselytizers in Malaysia feel further inspired by the
fact that Malays are born Muslim; thus they feel
Muslims' declared faith is often not a form of embrace
but subjugation.
"The Muslims who come to see me
to be delivered think the religion treats them as
second-class citizens," said Reverend Kumar. "They say
they don't know what to believe in, they've just been
told to believe in it. They feel empty, and they just
follow. They come here because they want something more
real."
A hard task ahead Reverend
Kumar will be hard-pressed to convince most Muslims in
Malaysia of the superiority of his faith, just as most
Muslims here find little success in converting
Christians. Yet it is an undertaking that the zealous
rarely tire of, even though it rarely leads anywhere,
other than to trigger fear and resentment.
Christians have reputedly used some back-handed
tactics to convert others. In addition to those
mentioned above, they also have been known to sponsor
picnics and retreats for non-Muslim children, even
offering them gifts.
"Many of these groups are
well funded and they've had some success in convincing
some people, like lower-caste Hindus, that entering
Christianity is a way up the social ladder," said law
professor Faruq. However, he added, some Muslim groups,
such as Jamait-e-Islamiya and Dakwah, have also
aggressively proselytized in Malaysia. Muslim and
Christian missionaries often do battle in the Borneo
states of Sabah and Sarawak. Many of the indigenous
tribes there were converted to Christianity during the
rule of the Brooke Family - known as the White Rajahs -
in the 19th century, although substantial numbers remain
unconverted. This goes for the orang asli
(original people) in Peninsular Malaysia as well, and
Muslim and Christian missionaries - presumably aware of
the status that's at stake: Christianity being the
world's largest religion and Islam the fastest-growing -
have been known to importune them.
Dzulkifli
Achmad, director of the Research Center of PAS, is
concerned about the net effect.
"There's a need
in Malaysia for more mature, mutual respect," he said.
"I used to seek to convert, but I no longer have the
drive. When you think of the unique fabric of this
society, it is in our interest to enhance mutual
respect. It is very important for Malaysia's solidarity
to appreciate other truths. Proselytizing is a form of
disrespect. It is the beginning of the conflict."
Several groups of various denominations say the
biggest impediment to addressing grievances has been a
lack of dialogue among the various faiths, as the
government has not only effectively sold the masses on
the belief that race and religion in Malaysia are just
too sensitive to discuss, it has also denied permits for
several inter-faith dialogues. It hasn't exactly
promoted better understanding among the faiths either.
For instance, Mel Gibson's film The Passion
of the Christ, about Jesus' last hours, will begin
showing here soon, but only Christians will be able to
view it. Non-Christians will be weeded out in the ticket
line according to their national identification cards,
which state one's religion.
To Nora Murah, a
legal officer with Sisters in Islam, the decision
contradicts the Prophet Mohammed's teachings. "The
Prophet embraced diversity and inclusiveness," she said.
So, too, did Jesus, Christians would opine. But
in the time that's lapsed since those two great men
walked the Earth, millions have grappled to follow in
their footsteps, invariably falling short, usually far
short - sometimes shorter than non-believers - and often
enough at the expense of their "brothers" and
"neighbors", as Malaysia can attest.
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