Malaysia

Government suspends the license of several maid agencies after an Indonesian maid escapes from her abusive employer using a rope to climb down from 15th floor apartment. Hotline is set up for foreign housemaids to call for help. Every month 1,200 Indonesian housemaids flee their place of work because of inhuman working conditions.

Vigil participants come from different religious background. They meet at the Dataran Merdeka in support of M Revathi, a Hindu woman torn away from her husband and child and forced into an Islamic “rehabilitation” centre. Banners call on the state to respect religious freedom and the right to love.

Some civil groups in Malaysia have organised a prayer vigil Revathi: and Indian Hindu who January last was condemned to 180 days of “rehabilitation” in a centre lead by Muslim authorities.

Legal experts and Islamic scholars and leaders square off before a large audience in a public debate over the conflict that pits Sharia against civil law in conversion cases. Some believe the issue has not been settled since the Qur’an is silent as to how apostasy should be punished and that what punishment that does exist “is man-made”. Others insist that any dialogue must be preceded by “respect for religion and its experts.”

Malaysia’s Chief Justice explains while upholding the Federal Courts ruling on the Lina Joy case, the Christian convert forced to face an Islamic court judgement. The Premier Badawi excludes that political pressure influenced judges, but admits the governments need to deal with the issue of non Muslim citizens and Islamic Courts.

The Christian woman whose conversion the Federal Court refuses to recognise speaks. Yesterday’s sentence practically obliges her to remain a Muslim and to marry a man of her same faith. Malaysian bishop: “An inhuman and uncivil decision”. Other minority religions express their concern. Catholic parliamentarian: “the government needs to clarify all doubts regarding the Constitutions prevalence over Sharia”.

The Federal Court has referred the case of Lina Joy, a women seeking legal recognition of her conversion from Islam, to the Islamic courts. The country’s contradicting laws are laid bare: religious freedom guaranteed by the Constitution cannot co-exist with Islamic law, which is increasingly imposed on the nation’s citizen’s even non-Muslims. Outside the court hundreds of demonstrators shout “Allah-o-Akbar”.

The Christian Federation of Malaysia says it is “disturbed” by the decision of Malaysia’s Federal Court not to recognise Lina Joy’s conversion to Christianity and worried by the creeping imposition of Islamic law on non-Muslim citizens. It calls on the government to reassert the supremacy of civil courts so that everyone can exercise true religious freedom.

On Press Freedom Day journalists remember the censorship, attacks, prison and murder they frequently face in many Asian countries. The ‘democratic’ West is indifferent. China represses its cyber-dissident. The bishop of Lahore speaks out on the issue.

Companies from Japan, South Korea, Thailand and China are getting concessions to exploit plantations or build casinos. Farmers are thrown off their land thanks to legal loopholes with little compensation for their lost land and homes. For some farmers, it is worst than under the Khmer Rouges.

At the very roots of the violence is an ideological interpretation of the Koran, rather than mere reactions to Western aggressions. The time has come for Muslims to react to this blind and childish style of religion. The first in a series of lessons on Islamism.

A heated debate is underway in the predominantly Muslim country as to which legal system, Islamic or secular, should prevail in cases involving Muslims and non Muslims in matters regarding the family and freedom of conscience. Here are some examples where Islamic law and Malaysia’s Constitution are at odds with one another. The government is paralysed over the matter.