'I Still Want To Be Hindu - Despite Rehabilitation'

A Muslim-born Malaysian woman who was held at an Islamic rehabilitation centre for six months because she tried to live as a Hindu insisted on Friday she would never return to her original faith.

The Islamic Religious Department in southern Malacca state detained Revathi Masoosai, an ethnic Indian, in January and sent her for religious counseling after officials discovered she had married a Hindu man despite being born to a Muslim family.

She was released from the rehabilitation centre on Thursday, and appeared in a High Court on Friday in an attempt to have her detention declared illegal.

Revathi, 29, claimed officials at the centre tried to make her pray as a Muslim, wear a head scarf and eat beef, but she refused.

"Because of their behaviour, I loathe Islam even more now," she told reporters. "They say it's a school, but it's actually a prison."

No one at the Islamic Religious Department could be immediately reached for comment.

Revathi was born to Indian Muslim parents who gave her a Muslim name, Siti Fatimah. But she claims she was raised as a Hindu by her grandmother and changed her name in 2001.

Revathi married Suresh Veerappan in 2004 according to Hindu rites and gave birth to a daughter last year. But the marriage was not legally registered because under Malaysian law Suresh would have had to convert to Islam first.

Revathi's official identification documents state she is a Muslim because Malaysians who are born as Muslims are legally barred from changing religion.

Islamic officials seized the couple's 18-month-old daughter from Suresh in March and handed the child to Revathi's Muslim mother.

Revathi said officials have ordered her to live with her mother and her baby for now and to continue undergoing counseling.

Her case highlights an increasing number of conflicts affecting the religious rights of the ethnic Indian and Chinese minorities. Indians, who form about eight percent of Malaysia's 26 million people, are mostly Hindus while some are Christians, Muslims and Sikhs.

Activists say a string of recent religious disputes have ended in favour of Muslims - who comprise nearly 60 percent of the population - and strained ethnic relations in the multicultural nation, which has enjoyed racial peace for nearly four decades. (Independent Online)

***** Quo vadis Malaysia?
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Malacca Syariah High Court judge says: "Conversion out of Islam is treason!"