Malaysia Tolak Perubahan Agama Lina Joy
Thursday, May. 31, 2007 Posted: 4:03:41PM PST
PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia (AP) – Pengadilan tinggi Malaysia pada hari Rabu menolak permintaan seorang wanita untuk diakui sebagai seorang Kristiani, dalam kasus penting yang menguji batas kebebasan beragama di negara Islam moderat ini.
Lina Joy, yang lahir sebagai Azlina Jailani, telah mengajukan perubahan nama di kartu identitasnya. Departemen Pendaftaran Nasional menyetujui tapi menolak merubah Muslim dari kolom agama.
Ia mengajukan keputusan ke sebuah pengadilan sipil namun diberitahu dia harus ke pengadilan Syariah Islam. Joy, 43, berargumen dia tidak dapat diikat oleh hukum Syariah karena dia adalah seorang Kristiani.
Pengadilan Tinggi Federal yang terdiri atas panel tiga hakim pada hari Rabu menghasilkan keputusan 2-1 yang menyatakan hanya Pengadilan Syariah Islam yang mempunyai kuasa yang membolehkan dia mengganti kata “Islam” dari kategori agama di kartu identitasnya.
"Dia tidak bisa dengan mudah menurut tingkahnya sendiri masuk atau meninggalkan agamanya," kata Hakim Ahmad Fairuz. "Dia harus mengikuti aturan."
Hakim Richard Malanjum, satu-satunya non-Muslim di panel itu, berpihak pada Joy, mengatakan "tidak beralasan" memintanya kembali ke Pengadilan Syariah karena dia bisa menghadapi tuntutan kriminal disana. Kemurtadan dianggap sebagai kejahatan yang bisa mendapat hukuman denda dan penjara. Pelanggar juga sering dikirim ke pusat-pusat rehabilitasi seperti penjara.
Joy tidak hadir di pengadilan hari Rabu.
Sekitar 60 persen dari 26 juta penduduk Malaysia adalah Melayu Muslim, yang hak-hak sipil, perkawinan dan pribadi nya ditentukan oleh pengadilan Syariah. Minoritas – etnis Tionghoa, India, dan komunitas lain yang lebih kecil – diatur oleh pengadilan sipil.
Namun konstitusi tidak mengatakan siapa yang mempunyai keputusan akhir dalam kasus-kasus seperti kasus Joy saat Islam mengkonfrontasi Kekr****nan, Hinduisme, Buddhisme atau agama-agama lain.
Tokoh-tokoh pendiri Malaysia sengaja meninggalkan konstitusi samar-samar, tidak bersedia mengecewakan tiga kelompok etnis dominan setelah kemerdekaan dari Inggris 50 tahun yang lalu, dimana saat itu membangun bangsa multiras yang damai lebih penting.
Situasi tersebut semakin diperkeruh dengan konstitusi yang menggambarkan Maysia sebagai negara sekular tapi mengakui Islam sebagai agama resmi.
Joy, yang mulai datang ke gereja pada 1990 dan dibaptis delapan tahun kemudian, telah dikucilkan dari keluarganya dan kabarnya dipaksa untuk berhenti dari pekerjaannya sebagai sales komputer setelah para klien mengancam menarik bisnis mereka.
Dia dan pacarnya yang merupakan etnis India ka****k bersembunyi di awal 2006 karena takut menjadi target fanatik Muslim, kata pengacara Joy.
Kasus Joy menimbulkan kemarahan kelompok-kelompok Muslim di jalan-jalan dan berujung pada banyaknya surat elektronik yang berisi ancaman mati untuk seorang pengacara Muslim yang mendukung dia.
Leonard Teoh, seorang pengacara ka****k, mengekspresikan kekecewaan terhadap hasil pengadilan hari Rabu, mengatakan keputusan itu gagal melindungi hak beragama.
"Orang seperti Lina Joy tidak seharusnya dijebak dalam kurungan legal, tidak bisa keluar untuk mempraktekkan kesadaran dan agama mereka, " kata Teoh.
Presiden Gerakan Pemuda Muslim Yusri Mohammad mengatakan pada hari Rabu bahwa "kami percaya penuh keadilan telah ditegakkan."
"Kami memuji Allah untuk keputusan yang diambil pengadilan," kata Mohammad. "Hal itu harus dilihat sebagai penolakan terhadap usaha yang dilakukan individu, pihak tertentu, yang secara radikal mau merekonstruksi dan merubah formula kita mula-mula" untuk isu-isu beragama.
Kasus Joy adalah yang paling menonjol dalam benang merah beberapa perselisihan agama baru-baru ini, diantaranya termasuk hak asuh anak yang lahir dari orangtua yang berbeda iman, dan satu kasus melibatkan seorang pria Hindu yang meninggal dan masuk Islam tanpa sepengetahuan keluarganya dan diperintahkan pihak berwenang Islam untuk dikuburkan sebagai Muslim.
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http://apnews.myway.com//article/20070530/D8PEPDH00.htmlPUTRAJAYA, Malaysia (AP) - Malaysia's top civil court Wednesday rejected a woman's appeal to be recognized as a Christian, in a landmark case that tested the limits of religious freedom in this moderate Islamic country.
Lina Joy, who was born Azlina Jailani, had applied for a name change on her government identity card. The National Registration Department obliged but refused to drop Muslim from the religion column.
She appealed the decision to a civil court but was told she must take it to Islamic Shariah courts. Joy, 43, argued that she should not be bound by Shariah law because she is a Christian.
A three-judge Federal Court panel ruled by a 2-1 majority that only the Islamic Shariah Court has the power to allow her to remove the word "Islam" from the religion category on her government identity card.
(AP) While waiting for the verdict on Lina Joy's court case, a Muslim woman prays together for a denial...
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"She cannot simply at her own whims enter or leave her religion," Judge Ahmad Fairuz said. "She must follow rules."
Judge Richard Malanjum, the only non-Muslim on the panel, sided with Joy, saying it was "unreasonable" to ask her to turn to the Shariah Court because she could face criminal prosecution there. Apostasy is a crime punishable by fines and jail sentences. Offenders are often sent to prison-like rehabilitation centers.
Joy was not present at the hearing.
Her lawyer, Benjamin Dawson, said Joy is "extremely disappointed" with the verdict.
"That to Lina, is a denial of her constitutional right to decide the religion of her choice," Dawson told The Associated Press.
(AP) While waiting for the verdict on Lina Joy's court case, a Muslim woman prays together for a denial...
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She has not decided on the next course of action, as her options are limited, he said. Joy can choose to remain a Muslim, appear before the Shariah court, or emigrate.
About 60 percent of Malaysia's 26 million people are Malay Muslims, whose civil, family, marriage and personal rights are decided by Shariah courts. The minorities - the ethnic Chinese, Indians and other smaller communities - are governed by civil courts.
But the constitution does not say who has the final say in cases such as Joy's when Islam confronts Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism or other religions.
The founding fathers of Malaysia left the constitution deliberately vague, unwilling to upset any of the three ethnic groups dominant at the time of independence from Britain 50 years ago, when building a peaceful multiracial nation was more important.
The situation was muddied further with the constitution describing Malaysia as a secular state but recognizing Islam as the official religion.
Joy, who began going to church in 1990 and was baptized eight years later, has been disowned by her family and has said she was forced to quit her computer sales job after clients threatened to withdraw their business.
She and her ethnic Indian Catholic boyfriend went into hiding in early 2006 amid fears they could be targeted by Muslim zealots, Joy's lawyer has said.
Joy's case sparked angry street protests by Muslim groups and led to e-mail death threats against a Muslim lawyer supporting her.
Leonard Teoh, a Malaysian Catholic lawyer, expressed disappointment at the ruling, saying the verdict failed to protect religious rights.
"People like Lina Joy shouldn't be trapped in a legal cage, not being able to come out to practice their true conscience and religion," Teoh said.
Muslim Youth Movement President Yusri Mohammad said that "we fully believe justice has been served."
"We praise Allah for the decision taken by the court," Mohammad said. "It should be seen as a rejection of attempts by certain individuals, certain parties, to deconstruct and radically revamp our current formula" for religious issues.
Joy's case is the most prominent in a string of recent religious disputes, some involving custody of children born to parents of different faiths, and one involving a deceased Hindu man who converted to Islam without his family's knowledge and whom Islamic authorities ordered to be buried as a Muslim.
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