San Jose Mercury News reported A Muslim-born woman who was forced to spend six months in an Islamic rehabilitation center because she wants to live as a Hindu said Friday after her release that she will never return to her original faith.
Her case is one of a growing number of conflicts in Malaysia between religious freedom and state policies that favor Islam, the official faith of this southeast Asian nation. The battles have strained ethnic relations in the multicultural nation. Malaysia is considered one of the world's most relaxed Muslim countries, having enjoyed racial peace for nearly four decades. But it follows a dual justice system. Islamic, Shariah, courts administer the personal affairs of Muslims, while civil courts govern Hindus, Christians, Buddhists and other religious minorities.
And yet the Quran says (Surah 2:256) “There is no compulsion in religion…”Revathi Masoosai, 29, said officials at the center tried to make her pray as a Muslim, wear a head scarf and eat beef, a practice sacrilege to Hindus.
How would the Muslims have reacted if they had been required to eat pork."Because of their behavior, I loathe Islam even more now," she told reporters. "They say it's a school, but it's actually a prison."
Her case is one of a growing number of conflicts in Malaysia between religious freedom and state policies that favor Islam, the official faith of this southeast Asian nation. The battles have strained ethnic relations in the multicultural nation. Malaysia is considered one of the world's most relaxed Muslim countries, having enjoyed racial peace for nearly four decades. But it follows a dual justice system. Islamic, Shariah, courts administer the personal affairs of Muslims, while civil courts govern Hindus, Christians, Buddhists and other religious minorities.
And they don't let you say which faith you follow.Under Islamic law, a person who is born Muslim cannot convert to another religion.... Revathi was born to Indian Muslim parents who gave her a Muslim name, Siti Fatimah. She was raised as a Hindu by her grandmother and changed her name in 2001, but her official papers still say she is Muslim. Revathi married Suresh Veerappan in 2004 according to Hindu rites and gave birth to a daughter in December 2005. But the marriage was not legally registered because under Malaysian law Suresh would have had to convert to Islam first.
So she was not a Muslim. Then why could she not leave Islam?Islamic officials seized the couple's 18-month-old daughter from her Hindu father in March and handed the child to Revathi's Muslim mother.
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First I´d just like to say I despise "compulsion in religion" whatever which religion it might be, this example is just as detestable as any other (unfortunatelly, all religions have an inherent tendency for coercion, even if you´d like to think it´s something unique to islam) - second, if you use qoutations from the quran as "proof" of anything, you should beware of anyone who knows his or her bible...
Leviticus;
6 " 'I will set my face against the person who turns to mediums and spiritists to prostitute himself by following them, and I will cut him off from his people.
7 " 'Consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am the LORD your God.
8 " 'Keep my decrees and follow them. I am the LORD, who makes you holy.
9 " 'If anyone curses his father or mother, he must be put to death. He has cursed his father or his mother, and his blood will be on his own head.
10 " 'If a man commits adultery with another man's wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.
11 " 'If a man sleeps with his father's wife, he has dishonored his father. Both the man and the woman must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.
12 " 'If a man sleeps with his daughter-in-law, both of them must be put to death. What they have done is a perversion; their blood will be on their own heads.
13 " 'If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.
14 " 'If a man marries both a woman and her mother, it is wicked. Both he and they must be burned in the fire, so that no wickedness will be among you.
15 " 'If a man has sexual relations with an animal, he must be put to death, and you must kill the animal.
16 " 'If a woman approaches an animal to have sexual relations with it, kill both the woman and the animal. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.
17 " 'If a man marries his sister, the daughter of either his father or his mother, and they have sexual relations, it is a disgrace. They must be cut off before the eyes of their people. He has dishonored his sister and will be held responsible.
18 " 'If a man lies with a woman during her monthly period and has sexual relations with her, he has exposed the source of her flow, and she has also uncovered it. Both of them must be cut off from their people.
19 " 'Do not have sexual relations with the sister of either your mother or your father, for that would dishonor a close relative; both of you would be held responsible.
20 " 'If a man sleeps with his aunt, he has dishonored his uncle. They will be held responsible; they will die childless.
21 " 'If a man marries his brother's wife, it is an act of impurity; he has dishonored his brother. They will be childless.
22 " 'Keep all my decrees and laws and follow them, so that the land where I am bringing you to live may not vomit you out.
23 " 'You must not live according to the customs of the nations I am going to drive out before you. Because they did all these things, I abhorred them.
24 " 'But I said to you, "You will possess their land; I will give it to you as an inheritance, a land flowing with milk and honey." I am the LORD your God, who has set you apart from the nations.
25 " 'You must therefore make a distinction between clean and unclean animals and between unclean and clean birds. Do not defile yourselves by any animal or bird or anything that moves along the ground—those which I have set apart as unclean for you.
26 " 'You are to be holy to me because I, the LORD, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.
27 " 'A man or woman who is a medium or spiritist among you must be put to death. You are to stone them; their blood will be on their own heads.' "
Exodus;
17 "Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.
20 "If a man beats his male or female slave with a rod and the slave dies as a direct result, he must be punished, 21 but he is not to be punished if the slave gets up after a day or two, since the slave is his property.
28 "If a bull gores a man or a woman to death, the bull must be stoned to death, and its meat must not be eaten. But the owner of the bull will not be held responsible.
...and so forth --- there´s a whole lot of killing and stoning going on...
Leviticus and Exodus are Old Testament. But even thenm those are punishments individual for their sins. He did not say kill anyone that does not convert (or pay a special tax.
God then sent His one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Where exactly does it say so in the quran? I´m not saying it doen´t, just curious, I guess you should know, since you keep track of every bad thing said or done by muslims.
Ok, no compulsory conversion, but if you say "fuck you" to your father you should be put to death, and you have no-one to blame but yourself... And if you defend christianity because it´s based on the new testament, then what about judaism? Or the Veda-scriptures? Why is only islam inherently evil? Why is "honour killings" and female circumsition practiced within certain cultural spheres and, within these spheres, NOT confined to practicians of islam, if it´s islam per se that´s the problem, as you like to make it out to be?
Is christianity the cause of the genocide in Rwanda, since it was justified with bible-qoutes and portrayed as some kind of holy crusade by the hutus, who were economically and politically supported by the international of Christian democratic partys! 800 000 slaughtered within weeks. That´s an atrocity not matched by any muslim counterpart since the Turkish genocide on the armenians in 1915. Why is that not loudly discussed as "proof" of the inherent evils of christianity? Or the Lord´s Resistance Army in Uganda who have kidnapped thousands and thousands of children to use as soldiers and sex-slaves, and who terrorize and slaughter the civilian population;
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2982818.stm
Why? Because they want to create a state based on the ten commandments of the bible.
But in your world, any foul deed committed by a christian is an anomaly, while every foul deed committed by a muslim is proof of the inherent evil of islam (as opposed to other religions). Well, the nazis used to interpret jewish behaviour in much the same way. I don´t wanna be a part in repeating the mistakes of the german people though.
"God then sent His one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
Well, that´s what YOU say...
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