I remember the days back in primary school when we would put on school records if we were Muslim, Buddha (sic), Hindu or Christian. "Free thinkers" back then, would merely put down the closest religion they could pick from (e.g. religion of parents or if they were "free-thinkers" too, then the religion of their grandparents).
I don't believe that you could put on official record that you were a "free-thinker" or agnostic or atheist.
Now I'm wondering if this situation has changed.

My two questions are:

1) Given the Rukun Negara line "Kepercayaan Kepada Tuhan" (Belief in God), and from what I've heard from friends, is athiesm illegal in Malaysia?

2) If atheism is not illegal, is this recognized officially in anyway? (I suspect that you can't have "atheist" in your MYKAD (Msian identity card))

Anyone familiar with Msian Law?

LOL No takers?!
How interesting. I presume everyone on this board are theists then?

I am an atheist.Everytime when I am asked to fill the religion column,I just simply put either Buddhist or Christian.I am not sure whether atheism is illegal in Malaysia or not.Also,our MyKad doesn't need us to state our religion.

Hmm.. i believed because people don't bother much about atheist here..

But atheisism isn't illegal in Malaysia.. well, as far as i know, you can request for atheist status in your mykad.. Not sure about this though..

I had 2 classmates who were freethinkers, but they registered themselves as Buddhists since their parents were registered as Buddhists so they inherit the religion only on paper.

Even if u want to register as an athest, ur religion will be regsitered as 'lain-lain' I suppose.

Even new religions that are not recognized by Malaysia are registered as lain-lain.One of my school's student is a Bahai person(or a Babi, not the animal but a person who embrace Bahaism, ), and he's religion is categorised as 'lain-lain'.

Asiafinest.com

Thanks for your replies so far.

There seems to be some confusion about what goes into MYKAD. Can anyone confirm?




If it is true that an atheist falls under lain-lain, like forrestcat says, that means that atheism is tolerated in Msia. But that is surprising because an atheist is not "undecided if God exists". Atheists normally know what it is they don't believe and WHY. i.e. they have successfully proven to themselves that religion is a mere husk that holds cultural / entertainment values.

Given this direct contradiction to the first principle of the rukunnegara, are we sure that atheists are welcome?


ahmede,

If you are not planning on joining this discussion, you can take your proselytising with you and leave.

It's hard to say if atheism is illegal or not in Malaysia.

Atheism is more of a hushed issue, I suppose. People don't really go around proclaiming they're atheists. They just don't go to temples/mosques/churches, but they also join in festivities such as Chinese New Year and Christmas, although merely for the sake of merrymaking.

But if you were to place atheism against the backdrop of the Rukun Negara, atheism would be logically illegal in Malaysia. This is because one of the four statements of the Rukun Negara says "Kepercayaan Kepada Tuhan" which means "Believing In God". Note also that the Rukun Negara is a foundation to the Malaysian law.


Actually on the MyKad our religion is not stated ... at least, not stated on the surface of the MyKad. Maybe it's different for Muslims, I'm not sure. But I'm a Christian and my religion isn't stated on the card itself.

Religion is only stated IN the card. : )

Hahaha. Astute.

i dunno if its illegal or not...but i have a friend who is atheist

so far he has never been kicked out...his whole family is atheist too..and nothing ever happened to them

so i think its ok if you are an atheist living in malaysia,being called malaysian and stuff

For non-Muslims, their religion will not appear in MyKad.

For Muslims, the word Islam is printed in the MyKad.