Thursday 17 April 2008

Before Or After Conversion? That Is Not Really The Question

Backpedaling in less than a week? Since Abdullah announced the form filling measure, now authorities are worried that by making it difficult for would be converts to Islam to embrace Islam because of pre-condition administrative measures like informing their families prior to conversion, they may be discouraged from embracing the Islamic faith.

Source: http://www.infendo.com/category/sega/

So the arguments now may center on the following procedures with its pros and cons being discussed and perhaps, the come out with the best(?) solution :

i) Scrap the form filing procedures and revert to things at it is,

ii) Have the form filing procedures but only need to fill in after informing the family members but prior to conversion, or

iii) Have the form filing procedures but only need to fill in after the conversion.

Do you know why Jesus called the religious teachers during His time as generation of vipers? The blind leading the blind? It is simple really. It is because these religious teachers are formulating so many laws and requirements to ensure the people don't break God's laws. Imagine God's laws as a white border line to denote the demarcation zone. The laws and requirements formulated by these religious teachers are like hedges and warning signs put on the paralled and along the way leading to the demarcation zone.

In all technical sense it should be alright since they prevent the people from accidentally crossing over into the demarcation zone. Sadly, the white line is merely a marker pointing to the greater issue at hand and by building hedges and warning signs, it effectively prevent and distract the people from seeing the greater issue.

So what is the point in requiring would-be Islam converts fill in forms? Why worry about whether it will make people face difficulties in conversion or not to Islam? If the Government have the will to clearly define which court has the final say in all matters involving two affected parties, namely Muslims and non-Muslims, I think all these filling up forms before or after conversion is merely an administration procedure.

So will the Government let the white line (READ: Clearly define the final judicial authority rest in civil courts and Syariah courts are subservient in relation to cases involving both Muslims and non-Muslims) be the marker that lead the way or will they continue to be the hedge builders?

5 comments:

zewt said...

this we shouldnt apply christians teaching to them... after all, 2 very different genre.

but there certainly needs some form of formal declaration from the person converting...

myop101 said...

Dear Zewt,

Hmmm... well, I don't see why not? If the common theme is about justice, surely we can draw from any materials we want to refer to.

At this point, I don't want to dispute about the form since we don't even know what procedure the govt is proposing. Will a Muslim convert be prevented from converting if none of his/her family member agree to sign on the form? Or is this merely a stat declaration to say, "yeah, i told my family. i am declaring it to be so"?

bayi said...

I believe the Bible encourages all those converting to Christianity to declare themselves. But the situation here in Malaysia is different. There are many implications if one converts to Islam. You are not allowed to renounce the religion. The property goes to the nearest kin who is a Muslim? I am sure there are many others. Hence the importance of no secret conversion as this will tear the social fabric apart.

myop101 said...

Dear bayi,

Not just about inheritance. What about child care? Decision on the underage which faith to embrace? We need clarity not because the non-Muslims are trying to be prejudicial towards Muslims by forcing them to solve it under the civil laws. Rather, we want both parties to sort it amicable and fairly under one common jurisdiction.

bayi said...

Myop101

Of course, child care too and a host of other important issues that fail to come to mind while I write this.

This is one of the reasons why any Chinese who converts is treated like a pariah by the others. It is not so much about race than it is religion.

In the eyes of the non-Muslims, civil laws to reslove issues between them is a fairer platform as there is no element of religion. If ever there is a Buddhist or Taoist legal system, would the Muslims have subjected themselves to this? Would they have believed assurances by the Buddhists that theirs is a fair system? But the civil courts are a non-religious platform and why is it so difficult for non-Muslims to ask for this platform to be recognized as the system to resolve issues we have with Muslims?