29 December, 2005
MALAYSIA

Muslim burial for Moorthy, Hindu Malaysian national hero
After his death, the Islamic tribunal declared him to be a Muslim despite
claims to the contrary by his Hindu family. The High Court rejected his
widow's appeal on the grounds that it has no jurisdiction over matters of
Islamic faith.

Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews/SCMP) - M.Moorthy, an ethnic Indian Malaysian, has
been buried under Islamic rites. Yesterday the High Court of Justice
rejected his widow's appeal against a sentence declaring him to be
Muslim, passed after his death. The affair is likely to fuel
ethnic-religious tensions.

M. Moorthy, 36 years, was a national hero, the first Malaysian to climb
Mount Everest. Since 1998, he has been paralyzed from the chest
downwards. He died on 20 December after spending the last days of his
life in a coma. As soon as he died, the Sharia court (Islamic tribunal)
declared that Moorthy had converted to Islam before his death so he
should be buried as such. The evidence of his former military colleagues
turned out to be decisive in the case while his wife, Kaliammal
Sinnasamy, and other relatives were not given a hearing because "they are
not Muslims". His relatives wanted to prove how this year, Moorthy, before
falling into a coma, had participated in Hindu religious ceremonies and
drunk alcohol, and that he had even been interviewed by local television
two months ago about his preparations for the Hindu festival of Diwali.

Faced with the appeal filed by Moorthy's widow, the High Court of Malaysia
ruled that it had no jurisdiction in religious matters and could not
override the Sharia court in such things. In Malaysia, a country with a
large Islamic majority as well as sizeable Christian, Hindu and Buddhist
minorities, the jurisdiction of the Islamic tribunal applies only to
Muslims while other people have full freedom of worship and are subject
to the jurisdiction of civil courts. The constitution prohibits
discrimination on religious grounds but Muslims cannot leave their faith
without the permission of the Islamic Court which rarely grants it.

After the High Court ruling, officials of the Islamic Affairs Department
took the body, which was buried in a Muslim cemetery, draped in a white
shroud to the chanting of verses from the Koran. Moorthy's wife did not
attend and his family held a Hindu funeral without the body.

Concern has been voiced about reactions from civil society, not least to
the resolute stand taken by the Islamic Affairs Department, which called
on the High Court to declare it was not competent to deal with the case.
""Non-Muslims must surrender to the jurisdiction of the Sharia court if
they want justice in such matters," said lawyer, Muhamad Burok, for the
department. "Islam is a religion of justice, which serves Muslims and
non-Muslims alike." His comments were greeted with protests from the
mostly 200 Hindus who packed the court.

A Muslim lawyer Haris Mohamed Ibrahim, said: "This judgment is a great
tragedy for secularism, civil society and the federal constitution. I
pity the wife; her husband was buried by strangers. The judgment leaves
millions of non-Muslims in the lurch."

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