The national news agency Bernama headlines on evening of April 10.
The Federal Government will soon make it a requirement for non-Muslims converting to Islam to declare their new religious status to their family members, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
And The Star breaking news:
PUTRAJAYA: The Government plans to introduce a regulation requiring non-Muslims wanting to embrace Islam to inform their family before doing so.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi suggested that there be a form or letter from the person declaring their family had been told and have understood his or her decision.
This, he said, was to prevent problems of families disputing the conversion of their parent, spouse, child or sibling especially upon their death when they are unable to bury or cremate their bodies.
Stating that currently there was no such regulation, he advised all who wanted to convert to inform their families to make things easier for everyone.
"We will have a regulation. When a person wants to convert to Islam, we have to ask them whether their wife knows about it.
"If they want to convert (to Islam), there is nothing wrong, why must they hide (the fact of the conversion); tell (the family).
"We don't want problems later when the man converts and converts the children also whereas the wife has rights too," he told reporters Thursday after chairing a meeting of the National Council on Islamic Religious Affairs here.
Abdullah added that withholding the information from the families also posed a problem to religious authorities performing their duties.
He said he had informed in the meeting earlier that religious issues were very sensitive and should be tackled wisely to avoid religious tension including the demolition of places of worship.
The above announcement came five weeks after this blog issued a Candidate's Compatibility Checklist on March 4, 2008 which include the following statement:
Without prejudice to the generality of Article 5 (Liberty of a person), Article 8 (Equality), Article 10 (Freedom of speech, assembly and association) and Article 11 (Freedom of religion), are you prepared to advocate and support an amendment to Article 12 Clause (4), which requires all individual intending to convert to another religion to seek consent from his/her spouse, or parents if he/she is not married?[ ] YES [ ] NO
The decision by the Federal Government requiring all non-Muslims intending to convert to Islam to declare their intention to their family is laudable but may not necessary avoid problems in the future.
Although the Prime Minister did not elaborate on the legal mechanism to ensure this requirement will be adhered by all parties, I hoped the government will seriously look into amending the respective laws to ensure there will not be any loopholes which can be challenged later by anybody or agencies.
There is a vast difference between a declaration and getting a consent before converting to Islam.
Even if those intending to convert to Islam declared they already informed their families, how can it be foolproof that the declaration has really been done by the convert and the family are truly aware of the conversion? What if in later years the Muslim convert died and the family denied they were informed of the conversion in the absence of an acknowlegement or consent letter? If consent is required, how to ensure it was obtained in accordance to the law?
