Rojak and Cocktail: No Muslim Burial For Christian

The tussle is over. The Selangor Islamic Religious Council (Mais) has withdrawn its claim to the body of the late Rayappan Anthony.

It filed the notice of withdrawal at the Syariah High Court registry here at 4.50pm yesterday, following an announcement by council chairman Datuk Mohamad Adzib Mohd Isa.

The reason given for the withdrawal was that there was more evidence that showed Rayappan was a non-Muslim when he died.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Tan Sri Bernard Dompok told theSun in a telephone interview: "The Cabinet is very sympathetic towards the family. The sentiment of the Cabinet was that he should be recognised as a Christian."

The case of Rayappan Anthony has caused a stir within Malaysia and has been taken up by the international press. 71-year old Rayappan died of complications from diabetes at Kuala Lumpur Hospital on Wednesday November 29. Rayappan lived at Shah Alam, in Selangor state.

Instead of having the body given to his family, the hospital had refused to hand over the body until there was clear indication of his religious status. Rayappan, an ethnic Indian, had been a Christian. However, in 1990 he had converted to Islam on January 20, 1990 in order to marry an Indian Muslim woman. He had changed his name to Muhammad Rayappan Abdullah.

The lawyer for Rayappan's family, A. Sivenasan, said: "But after about eight years of being a Muslim, Rayappan decided to return to his family and applied to renounce the faith." He claimed that Rayappan had made a sworn declaration before a Commissioner for Oaths to renounce Islam. On May 10,1999, Rayappan had applied to the National Registration Department (NRD), and had been issued with a new identification card, or MyKad. This carried his original name, Rayappan Anthony.

The Selangor Islamic Religious Department refused to accept that Rayappan's conversion back to Christianity was valid, as such decisions can only be made by an Islamic (Syariah) court.

42-year old Jaymarie, Rayappan's daughter, had said her father had stopped being a Muslim when he returned to his family and his wife, Lourdes Mary Maria Soosay, in 1999. Jaymarie said: "We hope we can claim the body amicably and our lawyer has given all the documents to JAIS (Selangor Islamic Religious Department, also called MAIS)."

On Friday, the Shah Alam Syariah Court adjudicated in a closed session upon the issue of whether or not Rayappan was to be buried as a Muslim or a Christian. Syariah High Court judge, Abu Zaky Mohammad ruled that the body should be buried according to Muslim tradition. He ruled that on Monday (December 4), the Selangor Islamic Religious Department could claim the body of Rayappan from the Kuala Lumpur hospital.

A. Sivenesan stated that the family would be filing a civil suit on Monday to order, demanding that Kuala Lumpur hospital return the body to the family. When that day arrived, more dramas ensued. The civil suit was lodged with the Wisma Denmark high court. The government was named as a defendant in the family's suit.

At the Syariah Court hearing on Monday, the Selangor Islamic Religious Department requested a review of the decision which had been made on Friday, that the body should be buried as a Muslim.

The family of Rayappan Anthony were visited by two policemen and three religious enforcement officers on Monday night at 8.20 pm. Sisters Mary, aged 45, Jaymarie, 42 and 44-year old Josephine were all issued with subpoenas, ordering them to attend a Syariah High Court hearing on Tuesday. They refused to attend the Islamic court, as they were not Muslims. On Tuesday, they went to Brickfields police station accompanied by A. Sivenasan, and filed a police report.

The report, Mary explained, was to deter the Selangor Islamic Religious Department or other parties from forcing them to attend a Muslim court, as they were not compelled to attend an Islamic court unless they were Muslims. She said in the report: "The action taken by the council is not right."

The family lawyer, A. Sivenesan stated on Tuesday: "We do not care what the outcome from today's hearing is. We are firm with our decision not to appear in court."

Sivenesan also said of the situation: "It's known as corpse-snatching. You don't bother about the man when he is alive. When he dies you come and snatch the body."

Because the three daughters of Rayappan Anthony did not appear at the Syariah High Court, the judge who had earlier ruled that their father should be buried as a Muslim, Abu Zaky Mohammad, was placed in an awkward position. He was forced to adjourn the case, to seek guidance from his superior Selangor chief Syariah judge Zohdi Toha.

The issue took a turn when the government was named as a defendant in the family's suit against the director-general of the Kuala Lumpur hospital. The prime minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced on Wednesday that the cabinet had discussed the situation. He said that the cabinet had ordered that the case should be handed over to the Attorney General, as it was important for the case to be resolved.

He said to reporters: "We want the A-G to find out his religious status, and if he is not a Muslim the authorities should hand over the remains to Rayappan's family."

A. Sienesan, the family's lawyer had submitted the documents on Rayappan's renouncing of Islam to the National Registration Department, and apparently the NRD had accepted his return to Christianity. The MyKad of the deceased, which had been issued in 2003, also noted that Rayappan's religion was "Christianity".

The government, led by the UMNO party, had received embarrassment at its recent 57th annual meeting, where three leaders in the party had made extremist comments, including at least one threat of violence against non-Muslims who did not support the party.

Minister in the prime minister's office, Nazri Aziz, has a reputation for hostility towards non-Muslims who criticize aspects of the constitution which place the rights of Islamic courts above those of the civil courts (Article 121 (1A) of the Constitution, introduced in an amendment in 1988, rules that civil courts have no jurisdiction on "any matter" which comes under the ruling of the Islamic Courts).

In March, Aziz had threatened to invoke the Sedition Act against critics of the Islamist constitution. This act, introduced by the British before Malaysia's independence on August 31, 1957, allows for a jail term of three years and a fine of up to 5,000 ringgit or $1,350.

On Wednesday, his words appeared conciliatory. He said that Rayappan's family should give evidence at the Syariah court. Aziz said: "They are being asked to give evidence. There is a precedent in the case of Nyonya Tahir; the family went to submit evidence. My personal view is that they should do this if they want a solution." He hinted that the family would receive a positive result if they went to the Syariah court. He said that the Syariah court would be fair to the family and he did not see a problem for them. "It is clear he had gone back to his earlier faith, and the identity card does not state that he is a Muslim." Aziz said.

The case of Nyonya Tahir, an 89-year old Buddhist woman, did set a precedent. A Buddhist since 1936, she had died on Thursday January 19 this year. When alive, she had tried repeatedly to get the National Registration Department to change her religious identity, as stated on her MyKad to Buddhist.

At age 12, all Malaysians are given a MyKad, and because of the racial/religious apartheid enacted in the nation, all ethnic Malays (like Nyonya Tahir) are listed as "Muslim". Ethnic Malays comprise 50.8% of the population. They are not allowed normally to convert from Islam, as the NRD states that such claims can only be decided by the Syariah Courts. And in the 49 years since independence, no living "Muslim" has been allowed to convert.

When Syariah officials commandeered Nyonya's body, her family protested. For the first time in the history of such courts, the Buddhist children of Mrs Tahir were called to give evidence at the Syariah court. On January 23, the court allowed the old lady's body to be interred as a Buddhist.

The Attorney General, Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail, said on Wednesday that all parties must respect each others' religions. He said: "Let us sit down and discuss the problem. Solutions can only be found if all parties sit down and look at the problem in a fair and equitable manner. Everyone must respect each other's religion and try to solve it amicably without immediately taking any stand. I will be meeting with several Islamic religious bodies including the Majlis Agama Islam Selangor (Selangor Religious Affairs Department or MAIS),'' he said.

The Attorney General noted that he could only give advice. He had no legal power to influence the decisions of a Syariah court.

Today, at 4.45 pm local time, the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (MAIS) announced that it had dropped its claim, according to its chairman, Mohamad Adzib Mohamad Isa. He said that there was additional evidence to show that Rayappan was not a Muslim.

He announced: "We have two sets of facts :“ some stating that he was not a Muslim and some stating that he was. But the existing facts were more towards him being a non-Muslim."

An hour before the decision, the Syariah Appeals Court had said the Syariah High Court in Selangor state had the power to review its decision to grant custody of the body to MAIS.

Rayappan's family went to the Kuala Lumpur hospital, and claimed the body of the 71-year old former van driver.

Rayappan's widow, Lourdes Mary Maria Soosay, said she had prayed for the body to be returned to them. She said: "The whole family is happy that everything has been sorted out and we can take his body back home with us." Her daughter Mary said she would find it hard to forget the trauma of the ordeal the family went through.

The funeral will take place at 1 pm on Saturday at the Church of the Good Shepherd, Air Panas, Setapak.

It seems that what has turned the event around for this family is the involvement of the government, whose main party, UMNO, has been embarrassed by comments made at its conference in mid-November. A year ago, a case involving a Hindu, Lt. Corporal Maniam Moorthy, made headlines around the world, when his wife's claims that he had never converted to Islam were ignored by Islamic authorities, who had Moorthy buried as a Muslim on Devember 28, 2005. His widow Kaliammal, had an appeal to the High Court unheeded, as the judge claimed that under Article 121 (1A), he had no power to contradict decisions of the Islamic courts.

A famous convert to Christianity, Lina Joy, took her case to the Federal Court, the highest court in the land, to demand her right to be a Christian, despite being classified as a Muslim. The decision on this case, and also a separate case at a Syariah court involving a woman called Kamariah Ali, has not yet been reached.

While the Lina Joy case remains undecided, the government cannot refer to the rights of citizens to follow or to be barred from following the Articles of the constitution which guarantee freedom of religion. Article 3(1) of the constitution states that "other religions (than Islam) may be practiced in peace and harmony in any part of the Federation", while Article 11 states that anyone can follow any religion of their choosing.

Malaysia: No Muslim Burial For Christian - Westernresistance
An open letter to the PM - The Sun
The Tragedy of Rayappan - Disquiet
Rayappan can now rest in peace - NST
Issue settled – family claims Rayappan’s body - The Star