Will Federal Court chicken out and doom non-Muslims in Msia?

Update: Judgement's out. It's apparently neither here nor there. I haven't really had the chance to dissect what the panel of 3 judges decided. Besides, the written judgement's not out yet. But it was a split decision. Anyway, watch out for a scathing blog post from sean-the-man in the near future. Meanwhile, satisfy yourself with this report from The Sun: Civil or Syariah, still unclear.

Original Post: The Federal Court will rule on Subashini's appeal to stop her Muslim-convert husband from seeking a divorce judgement from the Syariah court and to stop him from unilaterally converting their son to Islam.

But in actual fact, the decision will have tremendous consequences on the very fabric of Malaysian society.

Firstly, the Federal Court will also be deciding if it wants to remain the highest court of law in the country or abdicate to the Syariah Court.

Secondly, it will be deciding whether it wants to set a precedent that Muslim converts can set aside prior civil law contracts and arrangements (ie. entered into before they converted) simply because they are thereafter Muslim, especially when doing so spits in the face of natural justice, human decency and legal principle.

Thirdly, it will be deciding whether the Federal Constitution is still the highest law of the land, or if Article 11 and Article 12 of that constitution has been abolished by proxy.

Article 11
(1) Every person has the right to profess and practice his religion
(2) No person shall be compelled to pay any tax the proceeds of which are specially allocated in whole or in part for the purposes of a religion other than his own.

Article 12
(3) No person shall be required to receive instruction in or take part in any ceremony or act of worship of a religion other than his own
(4) For the purposes of Clause (3) the religion of a person under the age of eighteen years shall be decided by his parent or guardian

And since Malaysians mudah lupa (forget easily), here are some quick recaps:

• Malaysia's highest court to rule on powers of Islamic courts over non-Muslims - MalaysiaToday


• Thursday date for Subashini decision - Malaysiakini

In addition, here are some links to sean-the-man's views to this issue.

• http://sean-the-man.blogspot.com/search?q=subashini


• Religious Learnings for make better Glorious Nation of Malaysia


• How religious conversions should be


• The Scope of Syariah on Non-Muslims?


• JAIS, Body Snatching, Conversion, Apostates and the Courts