Mission & Justice

8/5/08

A Malaysian court has allowed a convert to renounce Islam, a rare decision for the conservative Muslim-led nation. Othman Ibrahim, Penang Sharia Court judge, said he had no choice but to allow an application by Siti Fatimah Tan Abdullah, a Malaysian citizen of Chinese origin, to renounce her faith and return to Buddhism. Apostasy, or renouncing one’s faith, is one of the gravest sins in Islam and a very sensitive issue in Malaysia where Sharia courts have rarely allowed such renunciations and have also jailed apostates”The court has no choice but to declare that Siti Fatimah Tan Abdullah is no longer a Muslim as she has never practised the teachings of Islam,” Othman told a packed courtroom on Wednesday.

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5/5/08

Malaysian women’s groups have reacted with outrage to a government proposal to impose restrictions on women planning to travel overseas on their own. The mainly Muslim country is considering requiring women to obtain the written consent of their families or employers before being allowed to travel alone outside the country, state news agency Bernama said yesterday, quoting the foreign minister. “It is totally ridiculous and it’s a totally regressive proposal with regards to women’s right to movement,” Norhayati Kaprawi, a spokeswoman for Sisters in Islam said today. The National Council for Women’s Organisations called it unfair. “This is an infringement of our rights,” council deputy president Faridah Khalid told the New Sunday Times.

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4/5/08

His lithe frame at full stretch, an orang-utan attempts to spearfish in a river on Kaja Island, Borneo, mimicking what he has watched humans do.Time and again he plunges his “spear” - a simple stick - into the murky water. When his exertions prove fruitless, he changes tack, using the implement to pull in nets, then making off with the fishermen’s catch. Elsewhere on the island, an orang-utan plunges into the river, swimming to the opposite side to steal fruit. His extraordinary feat - orang-utans have only recently learned to swim - was captured by photographer Jay Ullal for Thinkers Of The Jungle, a grim examination of the plight of the hairy red ape.But while the Indian photojournalist captured the images and German journalist Gerd Schuster penned the words, the man at the heart of this emotional journal is conservationist Dr Willie Smits.

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12/4/08

Malaysia will soon require non-Muslims to inform their family before converting to Islam, a move welcomed by minority religious groups, who said it will help ease ethnic and interfaith tensions. The planned rule aims to prevent religious disputes of the kind that have frequently erupted after the death of ethnic Chinese or Indian converts. In many cases families were unaware of the conversions and were angered when Islamic authorities seized the bodies for Muslim burial. The Prime Minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, said after meeting Islamic authorities on Thursday that the Government wanted to avoid such controversies. “If people want to convert, there is nothing wrong. Why must they hide?” he was quoted as saying in The Star.

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