In lauding the offer, MCA’s Ti Lian Ker however stressed that cases involving wrongful conversion should be decided in civil courts for justice to be done and “seen to be done”.
“It is good to know there are those who want to see justice done, especially after the unjustness many felt was done in the recent interfaith custody battles,” he told FMT, alluding to the court battles of Indira Gandhi and S. Deepa to gain custody of their children who had been unilaterally converted to Islam without their knowledge.
The Religious Harmony Bureau chairman was commenting on the offer by the Muslim Lawyers Association of Malaysia (PPMM) to resolve the issue, which was highlighted by the Malaysia Hindu Sangam.
PPMM president Zainul Rijal Abu Bakar had earlier today said Islam forbade forced conversions and the association was willing to pursue each case to ensure freedom of religion, as enshrined in the Federal Constitution, was upheld.
However, Ti said allowing syariah lawyers and courts to decide the faith of non-Muslims who were wrongly converted was a strict “no”.
Otherwise, the former assemblyman argued, a precedent would be set whereby victims wronged by one system would be subjected to another legal process which could be biased.
Ti also said if forced conversions did take place, the syariah legal system must have a provision to penalise such offenders to deter similar practices in future.
This was so that the actions of a zealous few would not smear Islam’s image.
“Thus, the focus of the discussion ought to be a law to deter such wrongful practices and not subjecting victims to a system that has caused them injustice and inconvenience in the first place.”
This morning, The Malaysian Insider reported Malaysia Hindu Sangam president R S Mohan Shan as saying that the problem was widespread in Peninsular Malaysia and involved mostly those from the lower-income group.
The 7,000 cases, he explained, were also a mix of those registered as Muslims by a convert parent generations ago and those erroneously registered by the Home Ministry.