Corrected 11.35am on 25 Aug 2010 ON 20 Aug 2010, a three-person bench of the Court of Appeal unanimously denied the application of S Kaliammal, the widow of Mount Everest climber M Moorthy, to determine her late husband’s religious status. Moorthy passed away on 20 Dec 2005 after entering into a coma. Just before his [...]

“Conversion is not a grounds for the automatic dissolution of a marriage. The children should be brought up in the common religion. For the spouse who intends to convert into Islam, he or she would also have to come clean…The convert would have to fulfil his or her marriage responsibilities according to civil laws prior [...]

Colin Nicholas PETALING JAYA, 4 May 2010: The Jabatan Hal Ehwal Orang Asli (JHEOA) has been involved in the Islamisation of Orang Asli for decades, said Centre for Orang Asli Concerns coordinator Dr Colin Nicholas. “One of JHEOA‘s main objective is to convert Orang Asli to Islam. They don’t say it openly but their budget [...]

Some people just don’t understand dialogue… SO now the government wants a formalised interfaith dialogue mechanism? Going by the history of the state’s response to attempts by civil society to initiate interfaith dialogue, I am not holding my breath. In 2005, various members of civil society had a conference proposing a statutory Interfaith Commission (IFC) [...]

Removing the “Islam” label on a MyKAD is not that easy PETALING JAYA, 15 Dec 2009: Despite cabinet announcements about conversions to Islam and proposed legal amendments to allow a Muslim convert to divorce in the civil court, other scenarios arising from conversions are not being addressed. As a result, numerous conversion cases are not [...]

THE late Malcolm X did it, and he’s a hero. Amina Wadud did it, and people call her a freak. “It” being converting to Islam. And as African Americans, Malcolm and Amina did it in the belief that Islam offered them spiritual liberation and justice. People convert to different religions all the time. Who can [...]