It’ll be back, Jamil Khir says of child conversion law
Zurairi AR, MM
The controversial Bill on unilateral child conversion to Islam will be resubmitted once the authorities “streamline” it, Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom (picture) said today.
Earlier this morning, the minister had withdrawn the disputed Administration of the Religion of Islam (Federal Territories) Bill 2013 from Parliament following vocal opposition to the proposed law, along with the Syariah Court Civil Procedure (Federal Territories) (Amendment) Bill 2013 and Syariah Criminal Procedures (Federal Territories) (Amendment) Bill 2013
“We will ‘perkemaskan’ (streamline) them in the future,” Jamil Khir told reporters here.
He did not, however, specify when the Bills will be re-tabled, and explained that the authorities will fall back on the current laws in the meantime.
“We’ll see, after consulting a number of bodies of every level, after that is done then we’ll table it,” he said.
Before the amended proposal, the law in effect was the Administration of the Religion of Islam (Federal Territories) 1993, also known as Act 505.
Last Friday, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said in a statement that the Cabinet had discussed the matter at length and decided to retract the Administration of the Religion of Islam (Federal Territories) Bill 2013 pending further study.
He was reported by national news agency Bernama as saying that the issue of a child’s religious status, particularly in cases where either the mother or father is Muslim, should be discussed thoroughly among all relevant stakeholders before being made law.
“The Cabinet had agreed that the retraction of the Bill was necessary to ensure that the issue on the determination of the child’s religion in such cases was resolved in a fair manner for everyone,” he was quoted as saying.
All further amendments to the law contained in the Bill would also be retracted for now, Muhyiddin said.
The attempt to legislate single parent consent for child conversion to Islam had caught the attention of the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism (MCCBCHST) and Bar Council shortly after it was tabled, with both calling the move unconstitutional.
The MCCBCHST went a step further and slammed the Cabinet as “insincere” for introducing the law despite a 2009 announcement by then law minister Nazri banning the unilateral conversion of minors to Islam.
The storm over proposed law resulted in a rare public disagreement among some Cabinet members, which saw ministers Datuk Seri G. Palanivel, Datuk Paul Low and Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz voicing their objection to the Bill.
Custodial tussles in cases of unilateral child conversions have been a growing concern over the years and provide a high-profile glimpse of the concerns of Malaysia’s religious minorities over the 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 do not apply to or recognise non-Muslims.
