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KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has
vowed to be “fair” to all faiths and urged minorities to be
patient on legal disputes including freedom of worship.
The premier also did not rule out parliament
reviewing current laws to solve conflicts over jurisdiction between
secular and religious courts, the reports said.
“I am your prime minister representing all
races. I have to be fair to all,” the Bernama news agency quoted
Abdullah as saying during a visit to the state of Sabah on Saturday.
“I know these are serious issues. We cannot
run away from this,” Abdullah was also quoted in the Star and New
Straits Times as saying, stressing, however, that “this cannot be
rushed.”
Malaysia’s Buddhist, Christian and Hindu
minorities have expressed fears over certain court verdicts that
they said favored majority Muslims despite constitutional guarantees
of freedom of religion.
Among the most celebrated cases involved a
Federal Court’s decision rejecting a woman’s bid for legal
recognition as a Christian after renouncing Islam.
Born a Muslim, Lina Joy, waged a decade-long
battle to have the word “Islam” removed from her national
identity card. But the Federal Court threw out her case and said
only the Sharia court can legally certify her conversion.
More than 60 percent of Malaysia’s 27 million
people are Muslim Malays and Islam is the official religion under
the country’s constitution.
The constitution defines the ethnic majority
Malays as Muslims but it also guarantees freedom of religion.
Minority Chinese and Indians are mostly Buddhists, Hindus or
Christians.
--AFP
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