Friday 4 March 2011

Tearing Away

I am positively bewildered with the “Girl convert no longer a Muslim” news piece in the StarOnline today.

And here we are thinking that people convert due to a newfound faith in religions (whichever it may be).

It’s not supposed to be a flippant act. Today a Muslim, tomorrow a Hindu then a Christian next Sunday. THAT would be beyond blasphemous.

The article seems to suggest that if the legal procedures are not followed, the convert will revert back to whichever religion (if any) he/or she was professing to.

This contention is simply mindboggling.

So what happens if the said convert still hold his/her newfound beliefs? Are they supposed to wait until they reach legal age to proclaim so?

Sure enough, there are cases where children became the unfortunate fodders in a battle between Masters and Missuses.

The assumption is that both parents want the best for their child and that would include being in the faith they believe is the true belief. Sometimes the battle gets nasty and you can easily traumatize a child forever with the tug and pull.

The Penang news itself is unclear on how the girl “had been converted to Islam without her family’s knowledge”. What happened? Who did what? How did the conversion occur?

What color was her kebaya and did it match her tudung?

Okay… Now I am being flippant.

Seriously, for someone to convert to Islam, they have to cite the Syahadah, and from the news article, it could also be deduced that this was done without her parental consent.

If your children wanted to convert to a different religion from the one they were brought up with, would you?

.......

Exactly.

So what now? Where do we go from here?

Or do we sweep in under the carpet as per norm?

Kramer vs Kramer (1979)

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