இஸ்லாமுக்கு மதமாறியவர் தூக்கு மாட்டி செத்ததால் மலேசியாவில் பிரச்னை

மலேசியாவில் இலங்கேஸ்வரன் என்பவர் தூக்கு மாட்டி தற்கொலை செய்துகொண்டார். அவரது உடலை அடாப்ஸி செய்த மருத்துவமனை அவர் இஸ்லாமுக்கு மதம் மாறிவிட்டார் என்று கூறி அவரது குடும்பத்தினரிடம் உடலை தர மறுத்துள்ளது.

இவர் மதமாறிவிட்டதாக கையெழுத்து போட்டிருப்பது கிறுக்கல், அவரது கையெழுத்தே அல்ல என்றும், அதில் யாரும் சாட்சி கையெழுத்தும் போடவில்லை என்றும் சுட்டிக்காட்டும் அவரது சகோதரர் செல்வம் இது அபாண்டம் என்று பழி சுமத்துகிறார்.

இறந்தவர்களை முஸ்லீமாக ஆக்கும் மலேசிய அரசாங்கத்தின் இந்த போக்கு கண்டிக்கப்படவேண்டும் என்று பலர் குரலெழுப்பி உள்ளனர்.

MALAYSIA
Case of Hindu to be buried as Muslim goes to court

The Islamic authorities claim that he had converted to Islam, and are not giving his body back to his family. But the family protests that the conversion has not been proved, and is going to court. This is the fate that increasingly meets controversial conversion cases, causing social tension.

Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews/Agencies) - B. Elangesvaran, aged 34, hanged himself on June 22. After the autopsy, the Parit Buntar hospital in Penang did not give his body back to his family, because the Islamic religious department says that the man had converted to Islam, and must be given an Islamic funeral.

His brother, S. Selvam, contests that there is no proof of the conversion, and that they showed him "only a police report alleging that my brother had embraced Islam at the Penang Islamic religious department . . . and a letter with some scribbling allegedly done by Elangesvaran that he had converted", but this was unsigned and does not indicate any witnesses to the conversion.

Now Selvam has appealed to the high court for the restitution of the body, and for permission to conduct a Hindu funeral "without interference". About 60 percent of the 27 million Malaysians are Malay Muslims, and Islam is the state religion. The other 40% are mainly Chinese and Indians, who generally practice their religion without problems. But it is not rare to see disputes over alleged conversions, and in 2008 prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi establish that those who convert to Islam must advise their families, precisely in order to avoid disputes after their death, as has already happened a number of times.

A. Vaithilingam, president of the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism, notes how "people who never knew him want to bury him, and are not permitting his family to take care of this". "It's the same old story. ... Every time there is a problem, the government makes a statement to ease tension and then forgets all about it".

The question is complex in part because the judicial system provides both tribunals for non-Muslims and Islamic sharia to handle legal questions for the Muslim faithful, where the rights of non-Islamic minorities are often sacrificed.