{"id":281,"date":"2007-05-30T14:15:03","date_gmt":"2007-05-30T06:15:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/borninmalaysia\/2007\/05\/30\/bbc-malaysia-rejects-christian-appeal\/"},"modified":"2007-05-30T14:15:03","modified_gmt":"2007-05-30T06:15:03","slug":"bbc-malaysia-rejects-christian-appeal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/borninmalaysia\/2007\/05\/30\/bbc-malaysia-rejects-christian-appeal\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC – Malaysia rejects Christian appeal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n
\n
source<\/a><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"Mosque <\/p>\n
Ms Joy was disowned by her family and forced to quit her job<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Malaysia's highest court has rejected a Muslim convert's six-year battle to be legally recognised as a Christian. <\/b> <\/p>\n

A three-judge panel ruled that only the country's Sharia Court could let Azlina Jailani, now known as Lina Joy, remove the word Islam from her identity card. <\/p>\n

Malaysia's constitution guarantees freedom of worship but says all ethnic Malays are Muslim. Under Sharia law, Muslims are not allowed to convert. <\/p>\n

Ms Joy said she should not be bound by that law as she is no longer a Muslim. <\/p>\n

Death threats<\/b> <\/p>\n

Malaysia's Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim said the panel endorsed legal precedents giving Islamic Sharia courts jurisdiction over cases involving Muslims who want to convert. <\/p>\n

About 200 protesters shouted "Allah-o-Akbar" (God is great) outside the court when the ruling was announced. <\/p>\n

"You can't at whim and fancy convert from one religion to another," Ahmad Fairuz said. <\/p>\n

Ms Joy's case has tested the limits of religious freedom in Malaysia. <\/p>\n

She started attending church in 1990 and was baptised in 1998. <\/p>\n

In 2000, Ms Joy, 42, went to the High Court after the National Registration Department refused to remove "Islam" from the religion column on her identity card. The court said it was a matter for Sharia courts. Tuesday's ruling marked the end of her final appeal. <\/p>\n

Ms Joy has been disowned by her family and forced to quit her job. She went into hiding last year. A Muslim lawyer who supported her case received death threats. <\/p>\n

Sharia courts decide on civil cases involving Malaysian Muslims – nearly 60% of the country's 26 million people – while ethnic minorities such as Chinese and Indians are governed by civil courts in the multi-racial country <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

source   Ms Joy was disowned by her family and forced to quit her job Malaysia's highest court has rejected a Muslim convert's six-year battle to be legally recognised as a Christian. A three-judge panel ruled that only the country's Sharia Court could let Azlina Jailani, now known as Lina Joy, remove the word Islam […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[24,27,302],"class_list":["post-281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-borninmalaysia","tag-mic","tag-protest","tag-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}