No way out for Muslims in Malaysia

“I will not change my ethnicity. I was born Chinese and I will die Chinese, I will not become Malay.”

- Malaysian Chinese Muslim Association (Macma) Malacca president Lim Jooi Soon

Of the latest Court of Appeal decision in dismissing the attempts of three bumiputera converts to renounce Islam, DAP’s Zairil Khir Johari, the honourable gentleman from Bukit Bendera, claimed, “Central to this issue is the question of whether the civil or syariah courts should decide in such cases.”

I beg to differ. In my opinion, the central issue is how Islam has been weaponised in this country (and many parts of the world) by the state. This is not a legal issue but a political issue. Nowhere is this clearer in a constitution that privileges one community over the others. Nowhere is this clearer when on the eve of an important election, the head of a ruling coalition makes it clear that he will use his influence - influence that I may add is supposed to be anathema to an independent judiciary - to correct a grave injustice that was the Rooney Rebit case.