The reality of Muslim intolerance

The Belmont Club:

A sad story from Malaysia describes the unsuccessful effort of a woman to officially change her religion. To avoid any mischaracterization of the situation, here are the quotes from the news account describing the attempts of a woman born a Malay Muslim to convert to Christianity.

Malaysia's best known Christian convert, Lina Joy, lost a six-year battle on Wednesday to have the word "Islam" removed from her identity card, after the country's highest court rejected the change. ...

"You can't at whim and fancy convert from one religion to another," Federal Court Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim said in delivering judgment in the case, which has stirred religious tensions in the mainly Muslim nation.

He said the civil court had no jurisdiction in the case and that it should be dealt with by the country's Islamic courts. "The issue of apostasy is related to Islamic law, so it's under the sharia court. The civil court cannot intervene."

At the heart of the case lies a constitutional question. Wikipedia notes: "The status of religious freedom in Malaysia is a controversial issue. Islam is the official state religion and the Constitution of Malaysia provides for limited freedom of religion, notably placing control upon the 'propagation' of religion other than Islam to Muslims, a fundamental part of a number of other religions. However, questions including whether Malays can convert from Islam and whether Malaysia is an Islamic state or secular state remain unresolved."

...

There is much more.

What are the chances of a Muslim Shari'a court treating a Christian convert from Islam fairly? Not much. Shari'a law is notoriously cruel and in human and the pursuit of justice is secondary to following ancient dark ages rules.

As the current controversy over Rushdie's being named a knight in the UK shows, the Muslim world has much to learn about tolerance for others point of view. Throwing tantrums every time you think your religion has been dissed does not invite respect.

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