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| Southeast Asia |
| Malaysian court rules Hindu be given Islamic burial |
| 2005-12-28 |
| This is new.. declared muslim after you're dead? An ethnic Indian was on Wednesday buried according to Islamic rites after the Malaysian High Court rejected his Hindu widow's claim over his body, saying the Shariat court has ruled he was a Muslim. The body of 36-year-old M Moorthy, who was part of Malaysia's 1997 team which scaled Mount Everest, was lying in a Kuala Lumpur hospital after it was caught in a legal battle since his death on December 20 after seven years of paralysis. Insisting that Moorthy died as a Hindu, his wife Kaliamaal Sinnasamy had moved the court claiming his body for last rites according to Hindu rituals. She was told by Moorthy's colleagues that the former armyman had converted to Islam last year and changed his name to Mohammed Abdullah. Ending the legal battle, the High Court accepted the plea of the Islamic Affairs Department that he was a Muslim as the Shariat court had last week ruled that he had converted to Islam. It said it had no jurisdiction in the Shariat court ruling. Following the court's ruling, officials of the Islamic Affairs Department took the body and washed it according to Islamic rites and buried it. Kaliammal's lawyer, A Sivanesan, said Moorthy's widow felt that anybody could take the body, but her husband's soul "is still with us." Sivanesan said the ruling was a "setback" for non-Muslims in the country. Haris Mohamad Ibrahim, a lawyer representing Malaysia's Bar Council, said the verdict was a "human tragedy." The case has drawn the attention of the media and the public in Malaysia where its minority population of Chinese and ethnic Indians freely practice their own religion. |
| Posted by:john |
| #4 Jeez, the ROP must really be in a bad way if they have to get their converts after death. Whadda buncha losers. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2005-12-28 20:05 |
| #3 *snort* ROFL! COFFEE ALERT! |
| Posted by: .com 2005-12-28 18:00 |
| #2 You'll probably be a reliable voter too... |
| Posted by: john 2005-12-28 17:54 |
| #1 Well, I'll probably be a Democrat after I'm dead. |
| Posted by: Jackal (from Moms house, like people on DU) 2005-12-28 17:52 |