Malaysia Top Court Doesn’t Honor Muslim’s Conversion
By THOMAS FULLER
Published: May 31, 2007

PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia, May 30 — Malaysia’s highest court on Wednesday refused to recognize the conversion of a Muslim-born woman to Christianity, ruling that the matter was beyond the jurisdiction of the country’s civil courts and should be handled by religious authorities.

The Federal Court was divided 2 to 1, with the only non-Muslim judge, Richard Malanjum, dissenting forcefully and arguing that the Constitution must remain the supreme law of the land.
Muslims, who make up about 60 percent of Malaysia’s population of nearly 25 million, have coexisted with Buddhists, Christians, Hindus and Sikhs for decades in one of the world’s most progressive and modern Muslim democracies. But the ruling underlined the increasing separation of Muslims from others and reinforced the notion that Islamic law should have primacy over secular laws in certain aspects of Muslims’ lives. the rest

NYT: Christian Convert May Leave Malaysia