The New York has an disturbing article on their website about a Malaysian woman who changed her religion from Muslim to Christian and now wants to marry her Christian boyfriend but is not allowed to [link to the New York arcticle].
As I understood Malaysia has a secular constitution. About 60 percent of the Malaysian are Muslim, 20 percent is Buddhist, 10 percent is Christian and 6 percent is Hindu. Enough to make it a balancing act to keep everybody happy. I also learned from the article that there is an civil court in Malaysia but there is also an Islamic Shariah court. The Islamic Shariah court decides about things like marriage, property and devorce for the Muslim part of the population. As the Malaysian woman changed her religion from Muslim to Christian she concluded that the Islamic Shariah court had no jurisdiction over her and she should be allowed to marry her lover. But the cival court decided differently.
Quote:
In rulings in her case, civil courts said Malays could not renounce Islam because the Constitution defined Malays to be Muslims.
They also ruled that a request to change her identity card from Muslim to Christian had to be decided by the Shariah courts. There she would be considered an apostate, and if she did not repent she surely would be sentenced to several years in an Islamic center for rehabilitation.
End quote.
Strange that in 2006 you are still now allowed to choose your religion and basically how you want to live your live and who you want to marry.