Malaysia Sets May 30 for Ruling on Islam Conversion
By REUTERS
Published: May 25, 2007

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia's highest court will rule next week on whether a Muslim has the right to convert to another faith, lawyers said on Friday, in a test case that could shake society in the mainly Muslim country.

The Federal Court, the country's highest civil judicial authority, will announce on May 30 if it has decided to acknowledge the decision of Lina Joy to convert to Christianity and give up Islam, the faith she was born into.

``We're all awaiting with bated breath a case which has a great impact on the course that the country will take,'' Benjamin Dawson, Joy's lawyer, told Reuters.

Islam is Malaysia's official religion, so Muslims who decide to switch faiths pose a tricky legal question for the government of the multiracial, multi-religious nation.

Ethnic Malays, who make up just over half of Malaysia's 26 million people, are deemed Muslims from birth. the rest