Malaysia bans people from leaving Islamic religion

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Malaysia's highest court has rejected a Muslim convert's six-year battle to be legally recognised as a Christian.
A three-judge panel ruled that only the country's Sharia Court could let Azlina Jailani, now known as Lina Joy, remove the word Islam from her identity card.

Malaysia's constitution guarantees freedom of worship but says all ethnic Malays are Muslim. Under Sharia law, Muslims are not allowed to convert.

Ms Joy said she should not be bound by that law as she is no longer a Muslim.

Crazy people.
I'm not surprised though.

I swear, a huge religious war is coming. Everyone is getting more fanatical. And the stupidest part is that they're very likely all wrong. I mean seriously, which one of them has a shred of proof for their ridiculous beliefs?

This is why I hate the human species. I really do. I am ashamed to be a human being.

Well said.

Well said.

c. Freedom of Religion

Article 2 of the constitution provides for freedom of religion, while declaring Islam the state religion. In practice, the government restricted religious freedom.

On March 1, the parliament adopted Ordinance 06-03 dealing with the conditions and regulations of religions other than Islam. According to the Ministry of Religious Affairs, one objective of the ordinance is the maintenance of public order. The ordinance confines non-Muslim worship to specific buildings approved by the state, imposes penalties for proselytizing, and treats transgressions as criminal rather than civil offenses. There are restrictions on public assembly for purposes of practicing a faith other than Islam without a license, prohibitions on proselytizing of citizens by foreigners, and controls on the importation of religious materials. There were no reports that the ordinance was enforced during the year.

The government requires organized religions to obtain official recognition prior to conducting any religious activities. The Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Seventh-Day Adventist churches are the only non-Islamic faiths authorized to operate in the country. Members of other denominations, particularly Methodists, were forced to operate without government permission or register as a part of the Protestant Church.

Article 36 of the constitution provides citizens the right to choose their own religion; however, the government's interpretation of Shari'a (Islamic law) does not recognize conversion from Islam to any other religion. There are no specific laws against Muslim citizens proselytizing non-Muslims; however, the government considers the proselytizing of Muslim citizens by non-Muslims to be a subversive activity. The government restricted the importation of religious literature, including Islamic literature, intended for widespread distribution, although it did not restrict such materials for personal use. In recent years, non-Islamic religious texts and music and video selections have become easier to locate for purchase. The government-owned radio station provides broadcast time for Protestant and Catholic radio broadcasts. The government prohibits the dissemination of any literature portraying violence as a legitimate precept of Islam.

The education and religious affairs ministries strictly require, regulate, and fund the study of Islam in public schools. The government monitored activities in mosques for possible security-related offenses, barred their use as public meeting places outside of regular prayer hours, and convoked imams to the Ministry of Religious Affairs for "disciplinary action" when deemed appropriate. The Ministry of Religious Affairs provided financial support to mosques and paid the salaries of imams; the ministry also trained and regulated the appointment of imams, and the law allows it to pre-screen religious sermons before they are delivered publicly (see section 2.a.). However, officials from the ministry have stated that they rarely interfere with sermons beyond an advisory capacity. The government monitored all Koranic schools to prevent extremist teachings. The Ministry of Religious Affairs controlled Islamic sermons during the violence between Islamists and the government during the 1990s, and those restrictions largely remained in place.

The Penal Code provides for prison sentences and fines for preaching in a mosque by persons who have not been recognized by the government as imams. All persons, including imams recognized by the government are prohibited from speaking during prayers at the mosque in a manner that is "contrary to the noble nature of the mosque or likely to offend the cohesion of society or serve as an apology for such actions."

c. Freedom of Religion

The constitution provides for freedom of religion; however, the government placed limitations on the exercise of this right. The constitution declares Islam as the official religion, and all other religious groups must obtain a permit from the Ministry of Islamic Affairs to operate and hold religious meetings. Depending on a group's activities, it may also need approvals from the Ministry of Social Development, the Ministry of Information, and/or the Ministry of Education.

The Muslim population is approximately 70 percent Shi'a and 30 percent Sunni.There are numerous Christian churches of different denominations, four Sikh temples, and several official and unofficial Hindu temples located in Manama and its suburbs. The only synagogue has been closed since 1948.

The government funds, monitors, and subjects all official religious institutions to some control. The government may appropriate or withhold funding to reward or punish particular individuals or places of worship although reports of this were not common. There were no reported closures of mosques or ma'tams (congregation hall for religious ceremonies) during the year.

Sunni and Shi'a waqfs made funding decisions for new mosque construction. Although both Sunni and Shi'a waqfs were reportedly well-endowed and were able to fund mosque construction, new mosques were dependent upon government approval of land allocation. The government's approval of land allocation for mosques was not transparent and reportedly not proportionate to the Shi'a community relative to its population in the country.

The government rarely interfered with what it considered to be legitimate religious observances. During the year, the government permitted public religious events, most notably the large annual Shi'a holiday of Ashura, but police closely monitored these gatherings. The MOI's policy of providing full media coverage of Ashura events continued this year. There were no restrictions on the number of citizens permitted to make pilgrimages to Shi'a shrines and to holy sites in Iran, Iraq, and Syria. The government monitored travel to Iran and scrutinized carefully those who chose to pursue religious study there.

The vast majority of those who attended Christian churches were expatriates. Events at churches occurred frequently and were advertised regularly in the English press, including the hosting of guest speakers from many countries.

The Political Rights Law of 2002 forbids election speeches in worship centers, but political sermons continued (see sections 2.b. and 3). Proselytizing by non‑Muslims is illegal and the government prohibited anti‑Islamic writings; however, Christian publications, including Bibles, were sold openly. Religious tracts of all branches of Islam, cassettes of sermons delivered by sheikhs from other countries, and publications of other religions were readily available. Christian pastors were permitted to provide literature to Christian inmates and to prison libraries.

In 2004 the Royal Court denied an application for a Shi'a mosque and ma'tam to be established in Rifa'a declaring that land, cannot be allocated for commercial enterprises.

Christian congregations and churches were registered with the government and operated freely.

The Ministry of Islamic Affairs has repeatedly denied a Baha'i congregation a license to function. The ministry views Baha'ism as an inauthentic offshoot of Islam and blasphemous, and it refuses to recognize the congregation, which continued to practice its faith without government interference.

c. Freedom of Religion

The constitution provides for freedom of belief and the practice of religious rites; however, the government placed restrictions on the exercise of these rights. According to the constitution, Islam is the official state religion and Shari'a (Islamic law) the primary source of legislation. Religious practices that conflict with the government's interpretation of Shari'a are prohibited. Members of non-Muslim religious minorities officially recognized by the government generally worshiped without harassment and maintained links with coreligionists in other countries. Members of religions not recognized by the government, particularly the Baha'i Faith, experienced personal and collective hardship. Approximately 90 percent of citizens are Sunni Muslims; less than 1 percent are Shi'a Muslims. The percentage of Christians in the population ranged from 8 percent to 15 percent, or between 6 to 11 million, the majority of whom belonged to the Coptic Orthodox Church. There were small numbers of other Christian denominations, including Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses, a Baha'i community of approximately 2,000 persons, and a small Jewish community of less than 200 persons.

The law bans Baha'i institutions and community activities, and stripped Baha'is of legal recognition. The government continued to deny civil documents, including ID cards, birth certificates, and marriage licenses, to members of the Baha'i community. The Ministry of Interior requires identity card applicants to self-identify as Jew, Christian, or Muslim. As a result, Baha'is face great difficulties in conducting civil transactions, including registering births, marriages and deaths, obtaining passports, enrolling children in school, opening bank accounts, and obtaining driver's licenses. During the year, Baha'is and members of other religious groups were compelled either to misrepresent themselves as Muslim, Christian or Jewish, or go without valid identity documents. Many Baha'is have chosen the latter course.

On December 16, the Supreme Administrative Court overturning a lower court ruling, decided that Baha'is may not list their religion in the mandatory religion "field" on obligatory government identity cards. In May, the Ministry of Interior had appealed an administrative court ruling issued in April, which supported the right of Baha'i citizens to receive ID cards and birth certificates with the Baha'i religion noted on the documents. The government had indicated that all citizens must be in possession of new computerized ID cards by January 1, 2007, and that old, hand-written cards will no longer be valid. (Egyptian citizens not in possession of valid identity documents may be subject to detention.)...

There are no legal restrictions on the conversion of non-Muslims to Islam; conversion of Muslims to Christianity, however, is prohibited by Shari'a. There were occasional reports that police harassed converts from Islam.

Muslim-born convert to Christianity Bahaa Al-Accad has been imprisoned without charge since April 2005. According to Al-Accad's attorney, his family, and human rights activists, his conversion to Christianity is the reason for his detention. They also reported that al-Accad's health had been harmed by harsh detention conditions, including malnutrition, and that other inmates had threatened to kill him since they believed him to be an apostate. Accad remained in detention at the Wadi al-Natroun Prison at year's end.

In 2004, an administrative court issued a verdict allowing Mona Makram Gibran, who had converted to Islam and later converted back to Christianity, to recover her original (Christian) name and identity. Some legal observers believed the case would constitute a significant precedent as the government has otherwise refused to acknowledge citizens' conversions from Islam to Christianity. As of late June, there were 148 other cases involving individuals who converted to Islam and then back to Christianity, who were attempting to recover their original Christian identities. Of these 148 individuals, 32 have received verdicts allowing them to recover their Christian identities and many of them have done so. The government has not appealed any of these cases.

In the absence of a legal means to register their change in religious status, some converts have resorted to soliciting illicit identity papers, often by submitting fraudulent supporting documents or bribing the government clerks who process the documents. In such cases, authorities periodically charge converts with violating laws prohibiting the falsification of documents.

Coptic males are prevented from marrying Muslim women by both civil and religious laws. A civil marriage abroad is an option should a Christian male and an Egyptian Muslim female desire to marry; however, if the couple returned to Egypt, their marriage would not be legally recognized. Additionally, the woman could be arrested and charged with apostasy, and any children from such a marriage could be taken and assigned to the physical custody of a male Muslim guardian, as determined by the government's interpretation of Shari'a. The Coptic Orthodox Church permits divorce only in specific circumstances, such as adultery or conversion of one spouse to another religion.