Malaysia's Islamic officials seize baby from mother who sought a Hindu life

April 6, 2007

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: Islamic authorities took away the baby of a Muslim woman who is living as a Hindu in defiance of the law in the latest case of religious conflict straining ties in multiethnic Malaysia, officials said Friday.

Revathi Masoosai's 15-month-old daughter was taken by the Islamic Religious Department in southern Malacca state on March 26 and handed to Revathi's Muslim mother, said department enforcement officer Mohamad Imran Ahmad.

"The baby's grandmother has custody of her for now," Mohamad Imran told The Associated Press.

Revathi, an ethnic Indian, is being held in a rehabilitation center run by Islamic authorities for her religious transgression. The baby was with Revathi's husband when she was seized. He has filed a police complaint, but it was not clear if he plans to take the case to court.

Meanwhile, the baby will stay with her grandmother. "When the baby's mother is released, she can try to regain custody if she wants to," said Mohamad Imran without elaborating.

The case, which was made public by the opposition Democratic Action Party on Thursday, highlights an increasing number of spats affecting the religious and family rights of the ethnic Indian and Chinese minorities.

Indians, who form about 8 percent of Malaysia's 26 million people, are mostly Hindus while some are Christians, Muslims and Sikhs.

Activists say a string of recent disputes have ended in favor of Muslims — who comprise nearly 60 percent of the population — and strained ethnic relations in this multicultural nation, which has enjoyed racial peace for nearly four decades.

Revathi, 29, was born to Indian Muslim parents who gave her a Muslim name, Siti Fatimah. However, Revathi claims she was raised as a Hindu by her grandmother and changed her name in 2001, said Chong Eng, an opposition member of Parliament.

Revathi married Suresh Veerappan in 2004 according to Hindu rites. The marriage has not been legally registered because Suresh would have had to convert to Islam first.

Revathi's official identification documents state she is Muslim because Malaysians who are born as Muslims cannot legally convert.

The Islamic Religious Department apparently learned of Revathi's case after she gave birth. Revathi was detained in January and taken to a rehabilitation center in central Malaysia where she is expected to be held until at least mid-April to undergo religious counseling, Chong said.

"Separating mother and child ... is inhuman," Chong said in a statement.

A custody battle would be complicated because Islamic officials and Revathi's mother would likely seek to try the case in Islamic Shariah court, which handles religious, family and personal law disputes involving Muslims.

Non-Muslims turn to civil courts to settle these issues. But the secular courts have generally avoided taking a position in such disputes between Muslims and non-Muslims, leaving it to the Shariah system, where verdicts have often favored Muslims.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/04/06/...dy-Struggle.php

Malaysia's Islamic officials seize baby from mother who sought a Hindu life

April 6, 2007

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: Islamic authorities took away the baby of a Muslim woman who is living as a Hindu in defiance of the law in the latest case of religious conflict straining ties in multiethnic Malaysia, officials said Friday.

Revathi Masoosai's 15-month-old daughter was taken by the Islamic Religious Department in southern Malacca state on March 26 and handed to Revathi's Muslim mother, said department enforcement officer Mohamad Imran Ahmad.

"The baby's grandmother has custody of her for now," Mohamad Imran told The Associated Press.

Revathi, an ethnic Indian, is being held in a rehabilitation center run by Islamic authorities for her religious transgression. The baby was with Revathi's husband when she was seized. He has filed a police complaint, but it was not clear if he plans to take the case to court.

Meanwhile, the baby will stay with her grandmother. "When the baby's mother is released, she can try to regain custody if she wants to," said Mohamad Imran without elaborating.

The case, which was made public by the opposition Democratic Action Party on Thursday, highlights an increasing number of spats affecting the religious and family rights of the ethnic Indian and Chinese minorities.

Indians, who form about 8 percent of Malaysia's 26 million people, are mostly Hindus while some are Christians, Muslims and Sikhs.

Activists say a string of recent disputes have ended in favor of Muslims — who comprise nearly 60 percent of the population — and strained ethnic relations in this multicultural nation, which has enjoyed racial peace for nearly four decades.

Revathi, 29, was born to Indian Muslim parents who gave her a Muslim name, Siti Fatimah. However, Revathi claims she was raised as a Hindu by her grandmother and changed her name in 2001, said Chong Eng, an opposition member of Parliament.

Revathi married Suresh Veerappan in 2004 according to Hindu rites. The marriage has not been legally registered because Suresh would have had to convert to Islam first.

Revathi's official identification documents state she is Muslim because Malaysians who are born as Muslims cannot legally convert.

The Islamic Religious Department apparently learned of Revathi's case after she gave birth. Revathi was detained in January and taken to a rehabilitation center in central Malaysia where she is expected to be held until at least mid-April to undergo religious counseling, Chong said.

"Separating mother and child ... is inhuman," Chong said in a statement.

A custody battle would be complicated because Islamic officials and Revathi's mother would likely seek to try the case in Islamic Shariah court, which handles religious, family and personal law disputes involving Muslims.

Non-Muslims turn to civil courts to settle these issues. But the secular courts have generally avoided taking a position in such disputes between Muslims and non-Muslims, leaving it to the Shariah system, where verdicts have often favored Muslims.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/04/06/...dy-Struggle.php

thats ridiculas

That's so mean!! Malaysians, pls answer!

another controversy in Malaysia.. whats next?

So sad to say that Malaysia is the Insane Society .....

It's pathetic for someone to separate a child from his/her mothe unless the mother is unable to carry out her maternal duty. I dare say this incident is not gonna be the last one, there'll be more in the future.

Why is this topic posted twice ?

wat do you expect press freedom!!!
promoting religious tolerance and the
right to choose change religion the way
we like which is denied to a malaysian
national; as shown by ROMANO.

hahahaha okay enuff enuff!! someone please put this thread to the serious talk section..

That's just fu-ked up.

that is hella stupid. what do those fanatics hope to accomplish?

the religious authorities really have nothing better to do. stupid. crazy and maybe bored too.

some laws here really need to be changed to allow conversion. i think this is the root of these problems.

btw, i believe the baby is a muslim as her mother is muslim, so please change the title as it is misleading.

some comments from malaysian: http://malaysia-today.net/blog2006/newsncom.php?itemid=3695

THIS IS TOO MUCH TO HANDLE. I am well aware of the discrimination by malays on chinese and indian minorities. But this thing is inhuman.

I think it clearly indicates that the mother wishes to change religion. I don't think a 15 month child is able to express a choice on religion. As a result it should be the parent(s) of that child that chooses a religion(if any) for them.

Allah told them.

This is indeed sad and I disagree with it.

But this is how the syariah laws of Malaysia works.

Muslim parents who dun teach their children about Islam could also have the children taken away from them..unless someone is cruel and heartless enuff to report to the religious authorities.

But this is the issue, is this woman Muslim? She has never lived a life as a Muslim and clearly doesn't want to be one. At the very least the Syariah laws need to be toned down, or dumped all together from having any legal standing.

I believe this matter occurs bacause the Muslim side of the family reported to the religious authority. It is said that the child is with his grandparents which I believe are Muslims.

Thats true her parents, who did not bring up their own child as a Muslim and instead left their child with her maternal grandmother who brought her up as a Hindu. How hypocritical of the baby's grandparents reporting their child as to how she is bringing up her child when they didn't do the same.

But whatever it is the Syariah court should not have the power to remove a child from its mother no matter what the circumstances. This is a terrible thing that has happened. To decide if this is fair all you need to do is ask yourself what if it was you and your religion? For the Muslims who defend this action, how would they react if it was them, their child and their religion?

I wonder whether this is the first case in decades?

The Indian woman will have no problem converting since she's not a Malay,and the child I believe could choose his religion when he grows up.

The truth is that the Indian woman was born a Muslim, as a child her parents gave her to her maternal grandmother to raise, who was Hindu. So in theory, the Indian lady will not be allowed to change religions.


Irrespective of which, a religious body should never be allowed to take a child away from their parent. This is one of the worst things that someone could do.

In past centuries the Americans tried to remove children from the "natives" to teach them to be cultured, with disasterous consequences. In the 1950's and 60 until early 70's "white" Australia tried to assimilate aboriginies into "Australian" culture, also with disasterous consequences, the children of which are now famously called the Stolen Generation. There must be extremely compellling reasons to remove children from their mothers, and religion is not one of them. We all know individuals who have grown up without adequete or no parental supervision whatso-ever and we see the consequences. This must not be allowed to happen to this little girl.

sad to hear all these... this happened over and over again and worsen...
muslim is such a sad religion that has no confidence with itself. look at their rules and regulations and u will know wat i meant.
tolerance? more like forcing....

There is nothing wrong with Islam, if I'm not mistaken Islam also says that Muslims need to treat other religions fairly and that Muslims need to live next to other religions happily. Like other religions, its the interpretation thats at fault. Its a matter of which people choose to plce more importance on.

the problem is... did they do that? not sure abt the converting law is in other part of the world as well?

Malaysia An Unusual And Complex Country, Says Prof Khoo

By Wan A Hulaimi

LONDON, April 14 (Bernama) - A veteran Malaysian academician has described his country as "very unusual and so complex" before an audience of British Muslims.

"Malaysia is truly Asia", Emeritus Professor of History, Datuk Dr Khoo Kay Kim said in an interview-discussion which was part of the weekly event of the London City Circle Islamic group, when asked the question if there were lessons to be learnt from the role of Islam in Malaysia's plural society.

"It is not that we don't have problems. We do have problems but they stem from misunderstandings not hatred," he said.

He cited a recent event where Muslims demonstrated before a church after rumours about a group of Muslims being prepared for conversion to Christianity.

"It turned out that these boys were Indians, so the Hindu Indians made loud noises about the conversion of their children, then it turned out that these were the young children of Christian Indian parents being prepared for religious initiation," he added.

"Non-Muslims in Malaysia generally do not understand Islam because Muslims think Islam has nothing to do with non-Muslims. The Muslims in Malaysia have not seriously played the role of 'muballigh' (spreaders of religion).

"I can tell you that the Muslims are not explaining Islam to non-Muslims. Muslims also should not distance themselves (from them). I said this on TV and they got angry with me. You have to play your role as 'muballigh'.

"The young are not taught Islam properly, the fundamentals of Islam. As my Pakistani friend told me, the fundamentalist is a good Muslim who knows the fundamentals of Islam. He is not a terrorist," Prof Khoo said.

Citing the experience of his own family, he said that his son wanted to do a doctorate in Islamic Studies in Britain but was disappointed when he could not get financial assistance from Malaysian officials who asked him why a non-Muslim would want to pursue the subject of Islam.

There has been unrest in Malaysia even before the May 13 incident but generally Malaysia is a tolerant country.

The biggest statue of the reclining Buddha in that part of the world is not in Thailand but in the Islamist controlled state of Kelantan, he told the audience.

He said that the government recently wanted to promote 'Islam Hadhari', the idea of progressive Islam, but what is needed in Malaysia now is not Islam Hadhari but Muslim Hadhari, progressive Muslims who reach out to non-Muslims and explain their religion.

"Islam in Malaysia has never really been given the opportunity to cross over to the non-Muslims because they (the Muslims) have been told not to," he said.

Asked if the New Economic Policy affected the climate of tolerance in Malaysia, he said that tolerance is always there but the division of parties meant that the politicians are always looking at racial issues.

"We have to make our young comfortable with one another," he said.

"People like to preserve their cultural identity. But you have to explain to them that if they become part of a nation then questions like cultural identity will no longer matter."

He said that the government is now realising this and is looking for better ways to integrate the young through the education system.

Elaborating on the Rukunegara, he said that the children are asked to learn the principles of nationhood by rote without understanding its content.

"The Asian approach to education is very mechanical. They learn by rote, they believe in the correct answer. The Malaysian education system is like that, you must always give the correct answer, you must always ask the correct question.

The students are asked to memorise the Rukunegara, the Rule of Law and so on, but if you ask them what the Rule of Law is they don't know." he said.

Forty years on, Prof Khoo, a member of the panel that formulated the Rukunegara holds this view: "So far it has no serious effect on society."

But even with all that, Malaysia is still a 'blessed society', he said.

When a member of the audience told him that she was not as optimistic on the future of the country, Prof Khoo replied that he had lived 70 years in Malaysia through thick and thin, and the country had always been able to overcome its problems.

"You should not listen to people who complain too much; you should listen to people who take the trouble to know the country," he said.

-- BERNAMA

As I understand there are generally 2 different groups of ideologies, the Arab one which Malaysia is leaning towards and the Turkish one. The Arab one places emphasis on religion controlling everything, which in their system is ok as virtually 100% of the population is Muslim. The Turks have on many occasion rejected the idea of making Turkey an Islamic state and have chosen for Turkey remaining a truly secular country, people outside Islam would see this as being more "modrate". Malaysia in theory is supposed to be a secular society, in some aspects it is but in some aspects its not. The concerning thing for non Muslims is that in the past few years, we are seeing the increasing "Arabisation" of Malaysia. One begs the question, why do people think they are better Muslims?

Even in Australia, some Arab Muslims feel they are "better" Muslims then other Muslims.

In Indonesia, the most populous Muslim country , Muslims are free to convert to another religion.

so that's mean there is no rule in muslim prohibit muslim to convert to other? only in msia have such rule? if so, i apologize for my earlier statement... i shld said those in MALAYSIA ONLY.... really malaysia BOLEH?

Nope, there is no such rule in Indonesia. People are free to choose their own religion. The official religions (Islam, Catholic, Protestant, Hindu, Buddha, etc) of course. Not some orgy or genocide sects or sumthin'

patutlah ditimpa bala bencana setiap tahun...

[quote name='HangPC2' date='May, 08:37 PM' post='2966328']
patutlah ditimpa bala bencana setiap tahun...
[/quote

Inilah contoh komentar dari orang yang otaknya ada di dengkul ...

Wow that is crazy and disgusting

No all the countries(which I can think of) where Muslim is the State religion do not allow muslims to convert. So its not Malaysia only.

Ha ini pula dari orang yang takde adab langsung

Aku Setuju

Wakakakakak .............
Soal agama itu sih urusan dan tanggung-jawab masing-masing individu sama TUHAN ...
Apa hubungannya dengan banyaknya bencana ????

Ayak-ayak wae ni budak !!!!

I agree. Where are you studying in Melb?

I was living there for a short time when working with ANZ.

sendiri paham lah kenaper ditimpa musibah mesti ada kesilapan...

So the lady in question was born a Muslim?

OK, why would the child be taken away from the mother .... unless the biological father is a Muslim. Now if that is the case, I will understand the anxiety on the woman's Muslim family.

Let's face it, this case involved Muslims. Let them solved it. To have non-Muslims meddle into the matter will makes thing into a mess.

We don't have all the facts here. Let the authorities do their job, & other platform can be sought too. From the way I see it, this case rest solely with Sharia court.

Look the facts of the case are all there, but I'll repeat it again for you.

This lady was born to Muslim Indian parents, but was given to her maternal grandmother to raise who raised her as a Hindu. So all her life she believes in Hinduism and essentially has been brought up Hindu. She refuses to practice Islam.

She "married" a Hindu man through Hindu religiuos rituals, I assume they are not legally married in Malaysia. When she had a daughter and it became apparent that the daughter was not being brought up in the was of Islam, the religious police took her away from her parents to give to thie ladys parents. Maybe her parents reported her to the religious police in the first place. To me if they did they are hypocritical. They didn't bring thier own daughter up as Muslim and now they wnat their granddaughter brought up Muslim. Irrespective of which it does not justify the removal of the baby from her mother.

Now you have put alot of faith in the Sharia court doing the right thing but, lety me ask you this. What is the priority of the Sharia Court? Is it the babies welfare? What about the parents right to bring up their child the way they choose?Or is the Sharia courts only concern the protection of Islam? Why don't you tell me what you think their priority is I doubt the babies best interest will be at hand, hopefully they prove me wrong.

The essential problem of the Sharia court is that only looks after the interests of Islam and this usually means Muslims. Will it protect the rights of Christians? I don't think so. Who protects the religious rights of non Muslims? Answer: no one. By haing by laws that protects the rights of Islam and no other religion, the govnt is saying that Islam is better then the others. I will guarentee you that the Sahria courts will never find in favour of Chriatianity. If there is religious conflict, it will be the govnts fault for having such unfair laws. If you think the current situstion is fair, just change places with a Christian and tell me if its still fair. Treat others as you'd want to be treated yourself.

Well, now's that certainly a mixed up one. Given the father is a Hindu, he can sought the Civil Court. The problem, why hadn't he?

From my point of view, the child should remain with the father. The Hindu dad can sought the Civil Court to pursue his right to raise the child as a Hindu.

Whats the point, by definition the child is Muslim and therefore as long as the father remains Hindu he will never get custody. So far, time and time again, civil courts have never "ruled over" Sharia courts. This is one of the complaints of non Muslims. At the moment Sharia courts take precedence over Civil courts. The only "exception" that I know of is when Mahathir personally intervened when a Chinese man and Malay woman from Singapore were married but not according to Islamic rituals were caught sleeping in the same bed in Malaysia, the religious police wanted to prosecute them.

By strict definition, the mother can also be charged for having sex outside marriage.

I don't think so. A Muslim lawyer who is a friend of mine said that the biological father may challenged the Religious Authorities in Civil Courts & have a good chance of winning the case & custody rights to the child. Only the mother that will be subjected to Sharia, not her non-Muslim spouse or the offspring.

So a baby born to a Muslim mother and non Muslim father can be brought up non Muslim, I don't think so. The reason why the baby was taken away in the first place was because the mother refued to bring her up as a Muslim. I don't think there is any difference who is bringing up the child. I know in a mixed marriage, if the Muslim parent dies, according to Sharia law, the children must still be brought up Muslim otherwise they may be removed from the survuiving parent. Which is consistent to what has happened here.