No Joy For Joy
Who is Lina Joy?
Lina Joy is a Malay convert from Islam to Christianity. Born Azlina Jailani in 1964[1] in Malaysia to Muslim parents, she converted at age 26. In 1998, she was baptized, and applied to have her conversion legally recognized by the Malaysian courts. Though her change of name was recognized in 1999 and so noted on her identity card, her change of religion was not (since it is without the Mahkamah Syariah[2] confirmation document); for this reason, she filed suit with the High Court in 1999, bypassing the Syariah Court (Islamic court). She later filed suit with the Federal Court in 2006.[3][4] Joy hopes to live openly as a Christian; she was forced to go into hiding by the publicity surrounding her case.[5]
In a majority verdict delivered on May 30, 2007, the Federal Court rejected her appeal.[6] Her appeal was dismissed 2-1 by Chief Justice Tun Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim and Datuk Alauddin Mohd Sheriff. The ruling stated that "a person who wanted to renounce his/her religion must do so according to existing laws or practices of the particular religion. Only after the person has complied with the requirements and the authorities are satisfied that the person has apostatised, can she embrace Christianity.... In other words, a person cannot, at one's whims and fancies renounce or embrace a religion."[7]
Why would a person go to such lengths to change one word?
Legal recognition would have allowed her to have the change of religion noted on her national identity card; it would also remove the legal barrier to her marrying her Christian fiancé (marriage between Muslims and non-Muslims is forbidden under Malaysian law and the Syariah; the non-Muslim partner is required to convert to Islam under Malaysian law).
A blogger who recently attended an event relating to Lina Joy says:
When I took the mic, I pointed out something which seemed to have escaped their minds: that the Lina Joy issue is a procedural one, it does not have any real relevance to the application of the apostasy laws in Islam.
Uh-hunh.
Of course that does not mean that Lina Joy is exempt from these same laws, but that is a different story.
How compassionate.
Update
Basically what Menj thinks about the Lina Joy affair:
1. It's mostly a bureaucratic matter.
2. Lina Joy, a Christian woman, ought to be murdered since Islamic law supports that position.
3. Why are non-Muslims so rude? They should just SHUT UP and let Muslims deal with "their" issue.
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