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Greening of Malaysia
The Pioneer Edit Desk
Islamists stamping out other faiths
Gan Eng Gor, an ethnic Chinese Malaysian, died a Buddhist, but that
country's increasingly mullah-dominated authorities decreed that he
must be buried according to Islamic rites and rituals. So, Gan Eng
Gor's mortal remains were interred in an Islamic grave as his
grief-stricken family watched in horror. The family took the issue to
court, challenging the decision to deny the dead man a Buddhist funeral
in keeping with his life-long faith. A patient hearing was given by the
High Court in Malaysia's southern Seremban State to the complaint, and
then the decision of the shari'ah court, which had decreed Gan Eng Gor
must be buried as a Muslim, was upheld. The reason: His eldest son, who
has embraced Islam, had claimed his father too had given up Buddhism.
There is no evidence to sustain the claim, but such is the pernicious
influence of shari'ah courts in Malaysia today, nobody dares question
their patently flawed decisions which are aimed at imposing crude
majoritarianism while denying both religious freedom and minority
rights. In Muslim-majority Malaysia, Islam is being promoted over all
other faiths with a mailed fist; the Government fully sup****ts this
diabolic venture. There is a pattern to the shari'ah court's obnoxious
decree that Gan Eng Gor should be given an Islamic burial. In the past,
M Moorthy, an ethnic Indian Malaysian, a Hindu and something of a
national hero after he climbed Mount Everest in 1997, was denied a
Hindu funeral. The shari'ah court claimed his former colleagues in the
Army had said Moorthy had embraced Islam. Moorthy's widow was
disallowed to get the decision over-turned. In more recent times, a
Hindu woman, R Suba****ni, has had to helplessly watch her wayward
husband walk out of his marriage along with their son after embracing
Islam and thus securing the shari'ah court's sup****t. No amount of
pleading has fetched her justice, including her request for a divorce
in a civil court to which she is entitled under Malaysia's Constitution
which recognises the country's multi-religious and multi-ethnic
character and, therefore, provides for a dual judicial system
comprising civil and shari'ah courts.
The increasing clout of the shari'ah courts is not without reason.
Malaysia's Prime Minister Abdullah Bin Ahmad Badawi is aggressively
pursuing an Islamist agenda that excludes ethnic Indian Hindus and
Chinese Buddhists. Worse, it endorses the warped Islamist worldview
that all must subjugate themselves, or be forced to do so, to Islam.
The officially-sanctioned discrimination against ethnic Indians in
Malaysia is part of Mr Badawi's agenda, as is the demolition of Hindu
shrines and symbols of Hindu culture. Christians, too, find themselves
persecuted in today's Malaysia. This is a shame and a pity, not least
because Malaysia has a history of religious tolerance and
multi-culturalism. Although 60 per cent of Malaysians are Muslim, the
Islam they practiced was not intolerant of other faiths, but sought
co-existence. It is this emphasis on mutli-ethnicity and
multi-culturalism that gave birth to Malaysia's unique slogan aimed at
international tourists: 'Malaysia, truly Asia'. That slogan now rings
hollow even as the Badawi regime buries Malaysia's cultural and
civilisational past, insisting that this burial, too, must be truly
Islamic.
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