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'I'll never be Muslim'
06/07/2007 11:34 - (SA)
Shah Alam - A Muslim-born Malaysian woman who was held at an Islamic rehabilitation centre for six months because she tried to live as a Hindu insisted on Friday she will never return to her original faith.
The Islamic Religious Department in southern Malacca state detained Revathi Masoosai, an ethnic Indian, in January and sent her for religious counselling after officials discovered she had married a Hindu man despite being born to a Muslim family.
Revathi was released from the rehabilitation centre on Thursday, and she appeared in a High Court on Friday in an attempt to have her detention declared illegal.
Revathi, 29, claimed officials at the centre tried to make her pray as a Muslim, wear a head scarf and eat beef, but she refused.
"Because of their behaviour, I loathe Islam even more now," she told reporters. "They say it's a school, but it's actually a prison."
Tuah Atan, a lawyer representing the Islamic department, said Revathi seemed to have become "so obsessed with love" after meeting her husband, but he said officials remain hopeful that she might still return to Islam.
"From the facts of the case, the authorities still strongly feel she can reform," Tuah said.
Revathi was born to Indian Muslim parents who gave her a Muslim name, Siti Fatimah. But she claims she was raised as a Hindu by her grandmother and changed her name in 2001.
Muslims 'barred' from changing religion
Revathi married Suresh Veerappan in 2004 according to Hindu rites and gave birth to a daughter in December 2005. But the marriage was not legally registered because under Malaysian law Suresh would have had to convert to Islam first. Revathi's official identification documents state she is a Muslim because Malaysians who are born as Muslims are legally barred from changing religion.
Islamic officials seized the couple's 18-month-old daughter from Suresh in March and handed the child to Revathi's Muslim mother.
Revathi said officials have ordered her to live with her mother and her baby for now and to continue undergoing counselling.
Her case highlights an increasing number of conflicts affecting the religious rights of the ethnic Indian and Chinese minorities.
Indians, who form about 8% of Malaysia's 26 million people, are mostly Hindus while some are Christians, Muslims and Sikhs.
Lim Kit Siang, chairperson of the opposition Democratic Action Party, said on Friday that Revathi's case and other religious disputes could hurt Malaysia's image, saying they showed "a narrow and intolerant face of Islam which must be of increasing concern to progressive and moderate Muslims".
Activists say a string of recent religious disputes have ended in favour of Muslims - who comprise nearly 60% of the population - and strained ethnic relations in the multicultural nation, which has enjoyed racial peace for nearly four decades.
- AP
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