An ethnic Indian Malaysian was buried with Islamic rites yesterday after his Hindu widow lost a court battle over his religious identity, in a sensational case that has the potential to blow into a racial firestorm.
The High Court ruled in favor of the Islamic Affairs Department, allowing it to take possession of the body of ex-army commando M. Moorthy. The body has been lying in a legal limbo at a Kuala Lumpur hospital since Moorthy's death on Dec. 20 after seven years of paralysis.
The court rejected an appeal by Moorthy's widow, Kaliammal Sinnasamy, who had sought custody of the body, disputing an Islamic Sharia court's ruling last week that Moorthy, 36, was a Muslim convert and should be buried as a Muslim.
PHOTO: AP
Soon after the ruling, Islamic Affairs officials took over the body, washed it according to Islamic rites and draped it in a white shroud for burial in a Muslim cemetery. A cleric recited prayers over his grave as more than 50 Muslims chanted verses from the Koran.
Kaliammal did not attend but a brother and nephew of Moorthy observed the rites.
The case threatens to blow into a rare interracial and religious dispute in this Muslim-majority nation, which prides itself on religious tolerance among a population that also includes Buddhists, Christians and Hindus.
Haris Mohamad Ibrahim, a lawyer representing Malaysia's Bar Council, blasted the verdict as a "human tragedy."
"So much for good interracial relations," he told reporters. "The judge has just told the widow and her family to go back and leave the body of their beloved to be buried by strangers."
Religious affairs of Muslims are governed by the Islamic Sharia Court and others -- who are guaranteed freedom of worship -- by other civilian courts. The jurisdictions of the two legal branches rarely overlap. Generally civilian judges are loath to question the Shariah court's authority.
In his ruling on the appeal by 30-year-old Kaliammal, High Court judge Raus Sharif said he has no jurisdiction to overrule the Sharia court decision.
A weeping Kaliammal did not speak to reporters after the verdict but her lawyer, A. Sivanesan, said she does not consider it a loss.
"She says ... anybody can take the body, but her husband's soul is still with us," Sivanesan said.
Moorthy took part in a nationally feted Malaysian expedition to Mount Everest in 1997. He was paralyzed during army training in 1998 and slipped into a coma last month, at which time his former colleagues told Kaliammal that he had embraced Islam in October last year.
The Islamic Affairs Department did not provide documentary proof of the alleged conversion, saying he did it verbally.
Kaliammal says Moorthy was not a Muslim as he continued to drink liquor, eat pork and participate in Hindu religious festivals -- all prohibited by Islam -- even after the purported conversion.
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
RSS