[Assam] Assam is known to be easy going even with religion. Is it not an irony that most members of any religion/evil cults cannot take intelligent rational decision to make one free to think and explore, but getting trapped into submission; in Assam too?

Wed Jul 25 22:46:53 PDT 2007

[image: *]

Malaysia 'convert' claims cruelty

By Jonathan Kent
BBC News, Kuala Lumpur

Revathi Massosai alleges harsh treatment in detention

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6278568.stm**

*A Malaysian woman held for months in an Islamic rehabilitation centre says
she was subjected to mental torture for insisting her religion is Hinduism.
*

Revathi Massosai, the name by which she wants to be known, says she was
forced to eat beef despite being a Hindu.

Miss Massosai was seized by the Islamic authorities in January when she went
to court to ask that she be registered as a Hindu rather than a Muslim.

The case is one of a number that have raised religious tensions in Malaysia.

Miss Massosai was born to Muslim converts and given a Muslim name, but she
was raised as a Hindu by her grandmother and has always practised that
faith.

However, under Malaysia's Islamic law, having Muslim parents makes one a
Muslim and, as such, one is not allowed to change one's faith or marry a
non-Muslim.

But Miss Massosai married a Hindu man in 2004 and the couple have a young
daughter.

*Headscarf*

When in January she asked a court to officially designate her a Hindu she
was detained and taken to an Islamic rehabilitation centre.

Only the Islamic courts can allow a Muslim legally to change faith

Her detention was twice extended to six months, during which time she says
religious officials tried to make her pray as a Muslim and wear a headscarf.

However, the claim that will particularly shock Hindus is that the camp
authorities tried to force her to eat beef.

A lawyer representing the Malacca state Islamic department responsible for
Miss Revathi's arrest, rejected her allegations and said officials believe
that she can still be persuaded to embrace Islam.

She is adamant that she will remain a Hindu. In the meantime, Miss Revathi
and her daughter have been placed in the custody of her Muslim parents.

A Hindu Lina Joy, subjected to Islamic "re-education"
Some civil groups in Malaysia have organised a prayer vigil Revathi: and
Indian Hindu who January last was condemned to 180 days of "rehabilitation"
in a centre lead by Muslim authorities.

http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=9564

 Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews) – Malaysian civil society is rising against the
continued interference of Islamic law in the lives of non Muslim citizens.
 On June 19 in Kuala Lumpur a night time prayer vigil will be held to draw
public attention to the case of Ravathi, a woman of Indian origins who is
currently being held in a detention centre after the state refused to
recognise her religious status as a Hindu.

Organizers include the *Malaysian Consultative Council on Buddhism,
Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism *(MCCBCHST) women's rights groups
*Women's Action Society* (AWAM) and *Sisters in Islam* (SIS).

Revathi was born to Indian parents who had converted to Islam before her
birth. She claims she was raised by her grandmother as a Hindu.  She and
Suresh were married according to Hindu rites in March 2004. Revathi was
advised by the Malacca Islamic Religious Department to make an application
at the Malacca Syariah High Court to confirm her status as a Hindu. She did
as she was told. However, the Syariah Court ordered her detained in a
rehabilitation centre in Ulu Yam, Selangor under Melaka's Syariah criminal
laws for 100 days. This detention was extended in Revathi's absence for a
further 80 days supposedly because she had not "repented". In the meanwhile,
Revathi's Muslim mother obtained a Syariah Court order granting her custody
of Revathi and Suresh's 15 month old baby. That order was enforced on
Suresh's Hindu family with the assistance of the police. The family is now
torn apart - with the mother in detention, the child with the grandparents
and the father in limbo without his family.

After the Lina Joy case – the Malay women whose conversion to Christianity
was not recognised by the Federal Court, who judged it to be an issue for
the "Islamic tribunal" – increasing doubts about the existence of freedom of
belief and faith in the country.  In fact in multi-racial Malaysia two
legislations exist: Islamic and Constitutional, and they are often
conflicting.  For example Constitutional law grants freedom of religion,
while Islamic law prohibits conversion from Islam.  Organizers of the prayer
vigil Revathi, seek to underline that "Federal law supremacy over Sharia
needs to be reaffirmed".

*'Uproar over conversion to Hinduism'*
6 Jul 2007, 1838 hrs IST,REUTERS
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Indians_Overseas/Uproar_over_conversion_to_Hinduism/articleshow/2182844.cms

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MALAYSIA: A Malaysian woman on Friday accused Islamic religious police of
intimidation and mental torture during her six-month detention for
renouncing Islam in favour of the Hindu religion.

"It was a prison. They placed me in a solitary confinement," Massosai
Revathi, an ethnic Indian, said a day after she was freed from a state-run
Islamic counselling centre.

"Although I served 180 days, I still cannot convert out of Islam," said
Revathi, 29. "I wasted my time."

Her case highlighted another strain in the fabric of race and religious
relations in multi-ethnic Malaysia. Last month, dozens of people campaigning
for freedom of religion held a candlelight vigil to protest against her
detention.

In May, the country's best-known Christian convert, Lina Joy, lost a battle
in Malaysia's highest court to have the word "Islam" removed from her
identity card. In delivering judgment in that case, the Federal Court's
chief justice said the issue of apostasy was related to Islamic law, and
civil courts could not intervene.

In practice, sharia courts do not allow Muslims to formally renounce Islam,
preferring to send apostates to counselling and, ultimately, fining or
jailing them if they refuse to desist.

Such people often end up in legal limbo, unable to register their new
religious affiliations or legally marry non-Muslims. Many keep silent about
their choice or emigrate.

Revathi was born to a Indian Hindu family, which converted to Islam before
she was born. Although given the Muslim name of Siti Fatimah Karim, she said
she was raised as a Hindu by her grandmother.

She married a Hindu in 2004 according to Hindu rites and the couple have an
18-month-old daughter.

Revathi was freed on Thursday, a day before the hearing of her husband's
application for her release was due to begin. A civil court judge on Friday
threw out the application since she had been released.

Speaking to reporters outside the court in the city of Shah Alam, 40 km (25
miles) southwest of the Malaysian capital, Revathi said she suffered mental
torture while in detention.

"They asked me to be a Muslim and they threatened to send my daughter to a
welfare home if I defied them," she said.
"They also served me beef, knowing I don't take beef as a Hindu."

A lawyer for the Malacca Islamic Religion Council, which acted against
Revathi, denied her charges. "She can claim
anything," the lawyer, Tuah Atan, said. "She has been put under the custody
of her parents until she is rehabilitated."
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