Sign petition for religious freedom!
Dear all,
Please go to this link and sign an online petition to free Revathi from an injustice that makes a mockery of human rights! It doesn't make any sense! Help reunite Revathi with her baby and husband.
It takes only a few seconds.
Go here: http://www.PetitionOnline.com/2007Diva/
-----------------------------------------
THE PETITION
To:
Official concerned, Human Rights Commission Malaysia,
We want Revathi to be united with her husband. 180 days of ordeal and mental tension have been heaped upon this young woman and a mother of a one and a half year old baby, Diviya Dharshini. The Malaysian authorities have forcefully separated the husband and wife because the woman dared to become an apostate.
When Revathi born of Indian parents who got converted to Islam, decided to be a Hindu and married a Hindu she was advised by the Malacca Islamic Religious Department to make an application at the Malacca Syariah High Court to confirm her status as a Hindu. She did as she was told. But she was shocked to find that instead of granting her wish, the Syariah Court ordered her detained in a rehabilitation centre in Ulu Yam, Selangor under Melaka's Syariah criminal laws for 100 days.
To her utter horror the detention was further extended in Revathi's absence for another 80 days because she did not "repent". Meanwhile, Revathi's Muslim mother obtained a Syariah Court order granting her custody of Revathi and Suresh's 15 month old baby.
This order was enforced on Suresh's Hindu family with the assistance of the police. Thus the family was torn apart - with the mother in detention, the child with the grandparents and the father who has lost both his wife and his infant daughter to the fundamentalism of a state.
Meanwhile Revathi who is undergoing ‘rehabilitation’ has just been released and onsigned to her Islamic parents in a further move to ward off her husband’s legal efforts to get united with his lawfully wed wife.
Mrs. Revathi has revealed horrors she underwent during her confinement with the Islamic law enforcers.
Reuters report:
Once again the family has been cunningly separated by the authorities of fundamentalism. In this era of global vision and humanism, a family has been divided by sectarianism and this sectarian partition of the family has been abetted by a state machinery is a shame. It diminishes the humanity of all of us.
Let everyone who reads this, Tamil or Malay Hindu or Muslim, male or female or gender minorities – everyone who considers himself or herself as a global citizen belonging to the planet, let everyone sign this petition.
Let Diviya Darshini, have a loving father in Suresh and brave mother in Revathi. Let her have a good and healthy and united family. Let us sign this petition for her future and for the future of the children of you and me so that they can live in a world free of bigotry.
Please sign it now:
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/2007Diva/
Please go to this link and sign an online petition to free Revathi from an injustice that makes a mockery of human rights! It doesn't make any sense! Help reunite Revathi with her baby and husband.
It takes only a few seconds.
Go here: http://www.PetitionOnline.com/2007Diva/
-----------------------------------------
THE PETITION
To:
Official concerned, Human Rights Commission Malaysia,
We want Revathi to be united with her husband. 180 days of ordeal and mental tension have been heaped upon this young woman and a mother of a one and a half year old baby, Diviya Dharshini. The Malaysian authorities have forcefully separated the husband and wife because the woman dared to become an apostate.
When Revathi born of Indian parents who got converted to Islam, decided to be a Hindu and married a Hindu she was advised by the Malacca Islamic Religious Department to make an application at the Malacca Syariah High Court to confirm her status as a Hindu. She did as she was told. But she was shocked to find that instead of granting her wish, the Syariah Court ordered her detained in a rehabilitation centre in Ulu Yam, Selangor under Melaka's Syariah criminal laws for 100 days.
To her utter horror the detention was further extended in Revathi's absence for another 80 days because she did not "repent". Meanwhile, Revathi's Muslim mother obtained a Syariah Court order granting her custody of Revathi and Suresh's 15 month old baby.
This order was enforced on Suresh's Hindu family with the assistance of the police. Thus the family was torn apart - with the mother in detention, the child with the grandparents and the father who has lost both his wife and his infant daughter to the fundamentalism of a state.
Meanwhile Revathi who is undergoing ‘rehabilitation’ has just been released and onsigned to her Islamic parents in a further move to ward off her husband’s legal efforts to get united with his lawfully wed wife.
Mrs. Revathi has revealed horrors she underwent during her confinement with the Islamic law enforcers.
Reuters report:
“Revathi was freed on Thursday, a day before the hearing of her husband's application for her release was due to begin. A civil court judge on Friday threw out the application since she had been released. Speaking to reporters outside the court in the city of Shah Alam, 40 km southwest of the Malaysian capital, Revathi said she suffered mental torture while in detention. "They asked me to be a Muslim and they threatened to send my daughter to a welfare home if I defied them," she said. "They also served me beef, knowing I don't take beef as a Hindu."BBC report:
A lawyer for the Malacca Islamic Religion Council, which acted against Revathi, denied her charges. "She can claim anything," the lawyer, Tuah Atan, said. "She has been put under the custody of her parents until she is rehabilitated."
Revathi Massosai, the name by which she wants to be known, says she was forced to eat beef despite being a Hindu. Miss Massosai was seized by the Islamic authorities in January when she went to court to ask that she be registered as a Hindu rather than a Muslim. A lawyer representing the Malacca state Islamic department responsible for Miss Revathi's arrest, rejected her allegations and said officials believe that she can still be persuaded to embrace Islam. She is adamant that she will remain a Hindu. In the meantime, Miss Revathi and her daughter have been placed in the custody of her Muslim parents.
In fact even as she was going through the ordeal Malaysians, cutting across religion and race organized a prayer vigil for the young wife and mother, who was fighting for her freedom, child and family life. On June 19 in Kuala Lumpur a night time prayer vigil was held to draw public attention to the case of Revathi by such varied groups like the Malaysian Consultative Council on Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism (MCCBCHST), women’s rights groups Women's Action Society (AWAM) and Sisters in Islam (SIS).
Once again the family has been cunningly separated by the authorities of fundamentalism. In this era of global vision and humanism, a family has been divided by sectarianism and this sectarian partition of the family has been abetted by a state machinery is a shame. It diminishes the humanity of all of us.
Let everyone who reads this, Tamil or Malay Hindu or Muslim, male or female or gender minorities – everyone who considers himself or herself as a global citizen belonging to the planet, let everyone sign this petition.
Let Diviya Darshini, have a loving father in Suresh and brave mother in Revathi. Let her have a good and healthy and united family. Let us sign this petition for her future and for the future of the children of you and me so that they can live in a world free of bigotry.
Please sign it now:
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/2007Diva/
Labels: human rights, religion
says Wandernut on Monday, July 16, 2007
9 wandered by:
Atrocious!
I'm signature number 412 btw.
It's a Lina Joy story all over again.Except that fortunately, she wasn't married yet. Signing now..but as stated before, it seems that the syariah courts hold the upper hand when it comes to apostacy?
D
Signed.
The problem I have with this issue is how it leads non-muslims to cast judgement on islam as a religion.
In signing the petition, what are we saying? Free Revathi, Islam mocks Human Rights?
Islam is unique in that it's not only a belief but also a personal LAW that is administered by EXTERNAL parties - syariah courts, councils etc.
In the name of respect for other religions, who are we to protest Islamic law (as intepreted or misinterpreted) when we are not Muslims?
It is the perogative of religions to decide its own rules. So yes, D, since syariah courts are the arbiter of Islamic law, the syariah courts must therefor logically have the upper hand as you put it, when in comes to matters of apostasy.
A catholic who denounces his faith will be ex communicated. And by implication will suffer the consequence of losing the grace of god, losing access to heaven (nice way of saying the opposite). So the punishment is meted out in the afterlife, not by a Catholic Court and police.
The difference for Islam, is that SOME adherents believe that punishment for apostasy should also be meted out by persons other than god.
Punishment by the clerics, courts etc, is presumably on top of whatever afterlife consequence.
The only thing I can condemn on principle in Revathi's case, is the use of secular machinery (ie the Police) to enforce a non-secular issue. "This order was enforced on Suresh's Hindu family with the assistance of the police."
The Syariah Court should not have any authority to direct the Police to enforce its laws.
On a wider perspective, what we non-muslims are outraged at, is actually the official interpretation of Islam here. The danger of strong emotions like outrage is that we are likely to demonise Islam the religion, when it should instead be directed at those who interpret it.
What I wish non-muslims would consider is that there are verses in the Qur'an that decry forced belief.
"The earliest commentaries on the Qur’an (such as that of Al-Tabari) make it clear that some Muslims of Medina wanted to force their children to convert from Judaism or Christianity to Islam,
and this verse ("There is no compulsion in religion") was precisely an answer to them not to try to force their children to convert to Islam. Moroever, Muslims
are also guided by such verses as Say: The truth is from your
Lord; so whosoever will, let him believe, and whosoever will, let
him disbelieve. (al-Kahf 18:29)"
That paragraph is exerpted from an open letter signed by 38 scholars & leaders from all over the world (including a professor in Malaysia's IIU) to the Pope.
My worry is that people are just looking for an excuse to demonise the religion as a whole, and by association all muslims. And petitions like this only add fuel to that fire.
Spot: I agree with you that Islam (and Muslims) should not be demonised. But I think this petition's objective is to raise the 'noise' level of this case, and not one for religious mud-slinging.
Notice how issues never seem to move along unless there is enough 'noise'? The petition was set up to put pressure on people who can make decisions.
That said, this petition is unlikely to work anyway. The system has a way of ignoring noise when it suits them. Especially when the noise is not made by 'important' people.
But even so, we should STILL make noise, by petition or action (they had a peaceful vigil for her at Dataran Merdeka last month). Just to show that not everyone will take this sitting down.
The point of the petition is to ask for a woman to be reunited with her family. For civil law to make a stand and over-ride religious law, as our constitution has promised freedom of religion.
The petition simply says, FREE REVATHI.
Even the Sisters in Islam (SIS) support Revathi's cause.
Demonising of religion, any religion, meanwhile, is the media's favourite sport. THEY add fuel to fire, so THEY get more readers and viewers. No news sells like bad news. And we're all suckers for it, like it or not. But this petition is not about the media or us, is it?
The objective is to raise noise level yes, I agree.
The thing I object to is how incredibly easily non-muslims will jump on the bandwagon motivated more because of bigotry against Islam and Muslims, rather than realising that the problem is not the religion, but the zealots who interpret it.
I think it's very fair to say that a large majority have absolutely no understanding of Islam yet harbour great prejudice against it. We all know the remarks made against the hijab under the guise of concern for the rights of oppressed women, conveniently ignoring the fact that many women CHOOSE to wear it
We all have come across the disdain, fear, disgust, disappointment that comes out in over-the-top over-reaction when hearing of family & friends who marry a Muslim and are "forced" to convert.
The rousing of emotions in cries of "freedom of religion" in the course of publicising this Petition is not very far from the hysterical dramatics that drive the burning of effigies and flags.
The more likely thing to come out of emotionally charged petitions like this is increased bigotry against Islam and Muslims, than the freeing of Revathi.
Freedom of religion is as alien a concept to zealous practice of an all-ecompassing religions as any suggestion that Christ was just the winner in cult popularity contest is to Christians.
Of course Sisters in Islam should support Revathi. They've got the most legitimate voice to do so.
Forgot to add, the people who can make decisions and whom the pressure of such petition is targetted at...is not the government.
We are talking about Islamic law. The government is constitutionally secular. It has no jurisdiction over the syariah courts.
On this subject...the Lina Joy case was decided correctly. Only the Syariah Courts have the right to decide on matters of Islamic law. The issue of conflict of laws is a technicality that laymen and even lawyers struggle to comprehend. It's much easier to get all emotional and continue to see Islam in as bad a light as possible.
I must say, that I have not read enough of the Revathi case to confidently say this is my conclusive stand though. So I'm prepared to stand corrected. :)
Nut, There's one more thing that we can do besides the petition which is to Pray. Prayer for peace and reconciliation in this nation.
Join the NECF (national evangelical christian fellowship )and the churches of Malaysia to come together for a season of prayer - The 40days fast and prayer(22july - 30 aug).
With Malaysia's 50th year of independance, and our generation facing critical national challenges as well as rising crime rates, it's time where we rise up to pray that our land will be redeemed and that God's grace be upon our nation. For wisdom for the government and the leaders of Malaysia, for racial harmony ( for what is malaysia if the races are not in harmony?). And so that our children (or for us )will walk the streets of Malaysia in safety.
:)
I am sure GOD is very happy to see a baby separated from it's mother,a wife separated from her husband, a father separated from his wife and child.Happiness and Heaven is all about breaking up families.Congratulations to the authorities.
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