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November 26, 2009

Margashirsha Shuddha Navami, Kaliyug Varsha 5111

KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian woman who was converted to Islam as a child is battling to be recognised as a Hindu, in the latest conversion dispute to erupt in Malaysia.
 
S. Banggarma, 27, has said she was made to convert to Islam at the age of seven when she was placed at a children's home in Penang state.
 
She was given a Muslim name and her identity card — a critical document in Malaysia — declared her to be a Muslim. But as a teenager she rediscovered her identity and later married a Hindu man in a religious ceremony.
 
However, she cannot register the marriage due to their different religions — Malaysian Muslims are not permitted to marry someone of another faith, unless the spouse converts to Islam.
 
She is also unable to name her husband as the father of their two children, aged eight and two, on their birth certificates.
 
Banggarma is now seeking permission to change her name and religious status on her identity card but conversion out of Islam is extremely difficult in Malaysia.
‘I have always stuck to my Hindu roots and practised all the traditions,’ she told AFP.
‘I was born as a Hindu, I have lived as a Hindu and I will die as a Hindu.’
 
Conversion rows, including ‘body-snatching’ cases when Islamic authorities have battled with relatives over the remains of people whose religion is disputed, are common in Muslim-majority Malaysia.
 
The tussles have raised allegations that the country is being ‘Islamised’ and that the rights of the ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities are being eroded.
 
Welfare Department director-general Meme Zainal Rashid has refuted allegations that department officials forced Banggarma to convert to Islam, and said her father was responsible for the change of religion.
 
However, Banggarma dismissed the official version.
 
‘My father was a practising Hindu until he died and he never mentioned anything about converting anyone in the family to become a Muslim,’ she said.
 
Malaysia's inter-faith council has thrown its support behind Banggarma and rejected the government's stance that she must go to the religious Sharia courts for permission to revert to Hinduism.
 
Malaysia has a dual-track legal system, with the civil courts and the sharia religious courts operating side by side. Non-Muslims say they do not get a fair hearing when conversion and family law cases end up in religious courts.
 
The Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism said citizens deemed to be Muslims face imprisonment for attempting to leave the religion in some states.
 
‘We therefore reiterate our calls... for the authorities to put in place legislative reforms to ensure that Islam, and Islamic law, is not forced upon people like Banggarma who do not profess themselves as Muslim,’ it said.

Source: Dawn.com

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