PoliGazette » Stone Her!

Stone Her!

Filed under: Feminism, Political Islam, Radical Islam, Radical Muslims — Michael van der Galien, Editor-in-Chief on May 30, 2007 @ 6:21 pm CEST

Lina Joy is a Malaysian woman who converted to Christianity and wanted to marry a Christian man. Before she was a Christian she was a Muslim. As we all know, it is not allowed, according to the Sharia, to leave Islam. Michelle:

Joy bravely went to court to stop being identified as a Muslim–and earned death threats and family disavowal for her apostasy. Now, the verdict is in. Sharia wins, Lina Joy loses:

“You can’t at whim and fancy convert from one religion to another,” Federal Court Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim said in delivering judgment in the case, which has stirred religious tensions in the mainly Muslim nation.

Muslims cheered:

The ruling was greeted by shouts of “God is great” from many in the assembled crowd outside the Palace of Justice in Kuala Lumpur…The Joy verdict, which will likely become a precedent for several other pending conversion cases, is seen by many in Malaysia as evidence of how religious politics are cleaving the nation, with a creeping Islamization undermining the rights of both non-Muslims and more moderate adherents to Islam. Last November, at a party conference for the Muslim-dominated United Malays National Organization ruling party, one delegate vowed he would be willing to “bathe in blood” to defend his ethnicity — and, by extension, his religion. In several Malaysian states, forsaking Islam is a crime punishable by prison time.

Like Michelle I wonder: “Where are the feminists? Oh, and how about CAIR? Or our State Department?”

This is a major setback for religious freedom in Malaysia. It deserves to get a lot of attention. Lina Joy dared convert to Christianity, judges told her she cannot. If there is anything in breach with human rights, it is this. As usual, progressives would be wise to respond to this news: if they do not, it will make it very easy for conservatives to blast them for being hypocrites.

More importantly though: I wonder what there is anyone can do to help Lina.

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