Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews/Agencies) - B. Elangesvaran, aged 34, hanged himself on June 22.  After the autopsy, the Parit Buntar hospital in Penang did not give his body back to his family, because the Islamic religious department says that the man had converted to Islam, and must be given an Islamic funeral.

His brother, S. Selvam, contests that there is no proof of the conversion, and that they showed him "only a police report alleging that my brother had embraced Islam at the Penang Islamic religious department . . . and a letter with some scribbling allegedly done by Elangesvaran that he had converted", but this was unsigned and does not indicate any witnesses to the conversion.

Now Selvam has appealed to the high court for the restitution of the body, and for permission to conduct a Hindu funeral "without interference".  About 60 percent of the 27 million Malaysians are Malay Muslims, and Islam is the state religion.  The other 40% are mainly Chinese and Indians, who generally practice their religion without problems.  But it is not rare to see disputes over alleged conversions, and in 2008 prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi establish that those who convert to Islam must advise their families, precisely in order to avoid disputes after their death, as has already happened a number of times.

A. Vaithilingam, president of the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism, notes how "people who never knew him want to bury him, and are not permitting his family to take care of this". "It's the same old story. ... Every time there is a problem, the government makes a statement to ease tension and then forgets all about it".

 The question is complex in part because the judicial system provides both tribunals for non-Muslims and Islamic sharia to handle legal questions for the Muslim faithful, where the rights of non-Islamic minorities are often sacrificed.