Pakatan mum on child conversion law, says needs further scrutiny
(Malay Mail) – Pakatan Rakyat leaders today declined to weigh in on controversial law on child conversions to Islam, saying they needed time to study the matter first.
Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said the coalition will only issue a statement on the matter sometime next week, while his daughter and PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah revealed that a joint committee had been set up to study the law.
“We are looking at the Bill thoroughly and I have had a initial discussion with (PAS president) Datuk Seri Hadi Awang and also (Penang Chief Minister) Lim Guan Eng to get some understanding before we give a public response,” he told reporters in Parliament here.
“We have already set up a Pakatan committee to look into this and we will meet soon,” Nurul told pressmen in a separate press conference earlier.
The proposed amendment contained in section 107(b) of the Administration of Islam (Federal Territories) Bill 2013 has led to concerns by Malaysia’s religious minorities that more cases of unilateral child conversions to Islam may result.
Several non-Muslim government leaders have openly condemned the Bill as unconstitutional and called on lawmakers from both sides of the aisle to oppose the law which was tabled in Parliament last Wednesday.
Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has defended the Bill, however, arguing the proposed amendment was done according to existing laws.
But the Umno deputy president noted that the government will take into consideration all views given on the matter and Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom, the minister in charge of Islamic affairs, will be issuing a statement on the controversy soon.
Earlier today, Muhyiddin’s Cabinet colleague Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam suggested that a translation error was at the heart of the growing row.
The health minister was reported to have said the Malay version of section 107(b), which states the conversion of a minor requires the consent of a “parent or guardian”, was not in line with the English version.
However, he said the Malay version translates the word “parent” to “ibu atau bapa” (“mother or father”).
“The Bill is a totally new Bill. I think this part was not seen by them,” the Segamat MP was quoted as saying by the Malaysiakini news portal in a news conference here, referring to his colleagues in the Barisan Nasional (BN) government.
Dr Subramaniam, who is also deputy president of MIC, added that he did not think the Bill would be presented for voting.
“I don’t think it will reach that stage,” he said when asked if the MIC would vote against the Bill in the Dewan Rakyat.
The Bar Council had pointed out the translation error in a statement last week, on the heels of an uproar from the country’s largest non-Muslim faith group over the proposed law.
Both the Bar Council and the Malaysian Consultative Council Of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism (MCCBCHST) ― the umbrella body of Malaysia’s non-Muslim creeds ― had said the Bill, which aims to broaden the definition of parental consent in the conversion of children under the age of eight to mean either instead of both parents, was “unconstitutional”.
Custodial tussles in cases of unilateral child conversion have been a growing concern over the years and provide a high-profile glimpse of the concerns of Malaysia’s religious minorities over perceived dominance of Islam in the country.
It also highlights the complications of Malaysia’s dual legal systems where Muslims are bound by both civil and syariah laws, the latter of which does not apply to or recognise non-Muslims.
In 2009, then Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz said the government will ban the unilateral conversion of minors to Islam, in an attempt to assuage concerns among Muslim-dominated Malaysia’s religious minorities.
But cases since, such as that of a Hindu mother in Negri Sembilan who discovered in April her estranged husband had converted their two underage children to Islam after he had done so a year earlier without her knowledge, illustrate the lack of adherence to the ruling.
Pakatan Rakyat leaders today declined to weigh in on controversial law on child conversions to Islam, saying they needed time to study the matter first.
Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said the coalition will only issue a statement on the matter sometime next week, while his daughter and PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah revealed that a joint committee had been set up to study the law.
“We are looking at the Bill thoroughly and I have had a initial discussion with (PAS president) Datuk Seri Hadi Awang and also (Penang Chief Minister) Lim Guan Eng to get some understanding before we give a public response,” he told reporters in Parliament here.
“We have already set up a Pakatan committee to look into this and we will meet soon,” Nurul told pressmen in a separate press conference earlier.
The proposed amendment contained in section 107(b) of the Administration of Islam (Federal Territories) Bill 2013 has led to concerns by Malaysia’s religious minorities that more cases of unilateral child conversions to Islam may result.
Several non-Muslim government leaders have openly condemned the Bill as unconstitutional and called on lawmakers from both sides of the aisle to oppose the law which was tabled in Parliament last Wednesday.
Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has defended the Bill, however, arguing the proposed amendment was done according to existing laws.
But the Umno deputy president noted that the government will take into consideration all views given on the matter and Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom, the minister in charge of Islamic affairs, will be issuing a statement on the controversy soon.
Earlier today, Muhyiddin’s Cabinet colleague Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam suggested that a translation error was at the heart of the growing row.
The health minister was reported to have said the Malay version of section 107(b), which states the conversion of a minor requires the consent of a “parent or guardian”, was not in line with the English version.
However, he said the Malay version translates the word “parent” to “ibu atau bapa” (“mother or father”).
“The Bill is a totally new Bill. I think this part was not seen by them,” the Segamat MP was quoted as saying by the Malaysiakini news portal in a news conference here, referring to his colleagues in the Barisan Nasional (BN) government.
Dr Subramaniam, who is also deputy president of MIC, added that he did not think the Bill would be presented for voting.
“I don’t think it will reach that stage,” he said when asked if the MIC would vote against the Bill in the Dewan Rakyat.
The Bar Council had pointed out the translation error in a statement last week, on the heels of an uproar from the country’s largest non-Muslim faith group over the proposed law.
Both the Bar Council and the Malaysian Consultative Council Of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism (MCCBCHST) ― the umbrella body of Malaysia’s non-Muslim creeds ― had said the Bill, which aims to broaden the definition of parental consent in the conversion of children under the age of eight to mean either instead of both parents, was “unconstitutional”.
Custodial tussles in cases of unilateral child conversion have been a growing concern over the years and provide a high-profile glimpse of the concerns of Malaysia’s religious minorities over perceived dominance of Islam in the country.
It also highlights the complications of Malaysia’s dual legal systems where Muslims are bound by both civil and syariah laws, the latter of which does not apply to or recognise non-Muslims.
In 2009, then Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz said the government will ban the unilateral conversion of minors to Islam, in an attempt to assuage concerns among Muslim-dominated Malaysia’s religious minorities.
But cases since, such as that of a Hindu mother in Negri Sembilan who discovered in April her estranged husband had converted their two underage children to Islam after he had done so a year earlier without her knowledge, illustrate the lack of adherence to the ruling.
– See more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/pakatan-mum-on-child-conversion-law-says-needs-further-scrutiny#When:05:01:55Z
Pakatan Rakyat leaders today declined to weigh in on controversial law on child conversions to Islam, saying they needed time to study the matter first.
Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said the coalition will only issue a statement on the matter sometime next week, while his daughter and PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah revealed that a joint committee had been set up to study the law.
“We are looking at the Bill thoroughly and I have had a initial discussion with (PAS president) Datuk Seri Hadi Awang and also (Penang Chief Minister) Lim Guan Eng to get some understanding before we give a public response,” he told reporters in Parliament here.
“We have already set up a Pakatan committee to look into this and we will meet soon,” Nurul told pressmen in a separate press conference earlier.
The proposed amendment contained in section 107(b) of the Administration of Islam (Federal Territories) Bill 2013 has led to concerns by Malaysia’s religious minorities that more cases of unilateral child conversions to Islam may result.
Several non-Muslim government leaders have openly condemned the Bill as unconstitutional and called on lawmakers from both sides of the aisle to oppose the law which was tabled in Parliament last Wednesday.
Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has defended the Bill, however, arguing the proposed amendment was done according to existing laws.
But the Umno deputy president noted that the government will take into consideration all views given on the matter and Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom, the minister in charge of Islamic affairs, will be issuing a statement on the controversy soon.
Earlier today, Muhyiddin’s Cabinet colleague Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam suggested that a translation error was at the heart of the growing row.
The health minister was reported to have said the Malay version of section 107(b), which states the conversion of a minor requires the consent of a “parent or guardian”, was not in line with the English version.
However, he said the Malay version translates the word “parent” to “ibu atau bapa” (“mother or father”).
“The Bill is a totally new Bill. I think this part was not seen by them,” the Segamat MP was quoted as saying by the Malaysiakini news portal in a news conference here, referring to his colleagues in the Barisan Nasional (BN) government.
Dr Subramaniam, who is also deputy president of MIC, added that he did not think the Bill would be presented for voting.
“I don’t think it will reach that stage,” he said when asked if the MIC would vote against the Bill in the Dewan Rakyat.
The Bar Council had pointed out the translation error in a statement last week, on the heels of an uproar from the country’s largest non-Muslim faith group over the proposed law.
Both the Bar Council and the Malaysian Consultative Council Of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism (MCCBCHST) ― the umbrella body of Malaysia’s non-Muslim creeds ― had said the Bill, which aims to broaden the definition of parental consent in the conversion of children under the age of eight to mean either instead of both parents, was “unconstitutional”.
Custodial tussles in cases of unilateral child conversion have been a growing concern over the years and provide a high-profile glimpse of the concerns of Malaysia’s religious minorities over perceived dominance of Islam in the country.
It also highlights the complications of Malaysia’s dual legal systems where Muslims are bound by both civil and syariah laws, the latter of which does not apply to or recognise non-Muslims.
In 2009, then Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz said the government will ban the unilateral conversion of minors to Islam, in an attempt to assuage concerns among Muslim-dominated Malaysia’s religious minorities.
But cases since, such as that of a Hindu mother in Negri Sembilan who discovered in April her estranged husband had converted their two underage children to Islam after he had done so a year earlier without her knowledge, illustrate the lack of adherence to the ruling.
– See more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/pakatan-mum-on-child-conversion-law-says-needs-further-scrutiny#When:05:01:55Z
