Islamic tolerance alert from Malaysia. Remember: the traditional penalty for someone who leaves Islam is death, so in a certain sense Kamariah Ali, a member of the late lamented Giant Teapot sect, is getting off easy. "ASIAN LIVES: Malaysian woman's lonely campaign for religious freedom," from AFP, with thanks to Hutchrun:
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 28 (AFP) - No one will give Kamariah Ali a job, relatives and one-time friends shun her, and much of her time is spent in the law courts -- all because she no longer wants to be a Muslim."People look down on me because I renounced Islam. But people don't understand. Actually, religion belongs to God and you can access God in any way, not necessarily through Islam," says the soft-spoken 54-year-old.
Seven years ago, Kamariah publicly renounced Islam after being continually prosecuted and jailed by religious authorities in Malaysia's northern Kelantan state who accused her of deviating from the faith. She had become a member of a religious sect famous for quirky structures on its compound, including a giant teapot. Its leader, Ayah Pin, caused shockwaves by proclaiming that he was God and that his followers were free to practise whatever religion they pleased....
Kamariah's life has now shrunk to the confines of a compound which houses remaining sect members in northeastern Terengganu state, where she spends her days helping one of her children, who is a seamstress.
She rarely ventures out into the wider community, and state police and religious authorities have restricted the numbers of people who can see her.
But there's hardly a whiff of despair, or any sense that Kamariah considers herself a victim.
"I dont feel anything," she says of how she has been treated by the local community. "I dont feel sad, I feel pity for them because they dont understand."
Kamariah's renunciation was a rare challenge on an issue which remains completely taboo in Malaysia, where the constitution dictates that the ethnic Malays who dominate the multi-ethnic population are Muslim by definition.
Read it all.
The UDHR is crystal clear on this point.
Article 19.
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
The UN's complete silence on the absence of freedom in Muslim-ruled nations speaks volumes.
Another heroine steps forward. Bravo Kamariah! Bravo!
Kamariah is old news
The flavour of the day is N Moorthy.
http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2005/12/28/courts/12970832&sec=courts
Summary of events
1) Chap tries to climb everest but didn't make it
2) Now dead (recently)
3) Islamo fascists want to bury him as Muslim so ask Syariah (muslim) court to declare him as muslim
4) Wife and family claims he is not muslim. Claims he eats pork and drinks guiness (any man who drinks guiness is welcome in my books), also celebrates hindu festivals
5) muslim judge in federal court bends over and pulls down pants of law to give the syariah what it wants.
It just gets better and better. I predict that when Kamariah dies it gonna be another mess.
This is getting crazy..
I wonder what the us will do if
someone claims that an american is a muslim
Although there isnt any documentation
Although he loved pork chops
Although he went to church (a christian one)
Will our courts demand that the american widow
have to fly to Iran to beg an injust islamic court to allow her to bury her husband in the usa?
A very interesting and well written article at Catcha Malaysia. But no byline. I wonder, why?
Also, I get some major intellectual whiplash from reading the links on that catcha.com site (they seem to be advertisements with, ummm, differing messages): "Former muslim speaks out" vs. "Khalid Yasin Islamic DVD". Ouch.
Some background on Khalid Yasin is at 60 Minutes Australia:
http://sixtyminutes.ninemsn.com.au/sixtyminutes/stories/2005_07_24/story_1455.asp
I think JW discussed that Khalid Yasin interview in the past.
There is hope that some Muslilms will wake up and give up the cult of death called "ISlam"! This woman should be honored, and celebrated. To bad none of these so called liberals in the UN, EU, media can find her!
I wish Kamariah Ali well. Malaysia is a depressing country. The first thing that greets the visitor is an impression that Malays are keen imitators of both Arabic "pure islamic" ways, and the latest and cheapest consumerist trends.
Malays have lost their original culture and their personality owing to Islam. A country without character is a sad thing to see and to experience.
All Malays are degraded to a life-long status of imbecility, where they wait for a puffed-up (and self-couscious of the importance he is given) Arab trained mullah, to tell them what to do next. Meanwhile some take on meaningless modern consumerist fashions and pretend their country is so sofisticated.
Sickening.
What is so frightening about this verdict is that the Syariah courts, even if they erred in any decision, their judgements are final and absolute.
What’s more, it’s heads I win, tails you lose for the mullahs when the High Court could accept it was not the function of a civil court to provide remedy for this matter. Just because Moorthy’s widow could not go to the Syariah Court does not mean that she could go to a civil court.
In the civil courts, petitions can be made to higher courts, where more senior judges preside, for a review of decisions passed by lower courts.
In the M Moorthy case, the Federal Territory Islamic Affairs Council presented the Syariah High Court with “evidence” that may not necessary be acceptable by a civil court. The Syariah Court passed its verdict based on these “evidence”.
The deceased’s family immediately sought a declaration by the High Court that Moorthy was not a Muslim but a Hindu who observed Hindu customs before his death and that all documents relating to his conversion to Islam were unlawful, null and void.
During the hearing, the federal counsel representing the Federal Territory Islamic Affairs Council, Fakhrul Azman Abu Hasan, had the arrogance to tell the judge he did not produced any document proving that Moorthy was a Muslim as such documentation was unnecessary as the Syariah Court had already ruled that Moorthy was a Muslim.
One would have though he should be cited for contempt of court, but that wasn’t the case.
The honourable judge could have showed more compassion and he may also have erred in not granting a stay of proceedings so that Moorthy’s family can appeal to a higher court.
In short, the lesson from this case is that Muslims and non-Muslims will have to live with the fact that Syariah courts under “Islam Hadari” has intruded into the private space of private citizens.
This case shows you are not who you think you are. Man-made religious laws decide that. This is a dangerous precedent.