Jun
20
In stark contrast to the previous blog post about the Episcopal priest from Washington who has declared herself 100% Christian and 100% Muslim is this from The Boston Globe about Lina Joy. Here’s an extended quote to cut to the chase:
Malaysia’s best known Christian convert, Lina Joy, lost a six-year battle on Wednesday to have the word “Islam” removed from her identity card, after the country’s highest court rejected the change.
The ruling threatens to further polarize Malaysian society between non-Muslims who feel that their constitutional right to religious freedom is being eroded, and Muslims who believe that civil courts have no right to meddle in Islamic affairs.
“You can’t at whim and fancy convert from one religion to another,” Federal Court Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim said in delivering judgment in the case, which has stirred religious tensions in the mainly Muslim nation.
He said the civil court had no jurisdiction in the case and that it should be dealt with by the country’s Islamic courts.”The issue of apostasy is related to Islamic law, so it’s under the sharia court. The civil court cannot intervene.”
…Lina Joy, 43, was born Azlina Jailani and was brought up as a Muslim, but at the age of 26 decided to become a Christian. She wants to marry her Christian boyfriend, a cook, but she cannot do so while her identity card declares her to be Muslim.
In 1999, the registration department allowed her to change the name in her identity card to Lina Joy but the entry for her religion remained “Islam.”
Malaysia, like neighboring Indonesia, practices a moderate brand of Islam, but Muslims account for only a bare majority of Malaysia’s population and are very sensitive to any perceived threats to Islam’s special status as the official religion.
Malaysia has been under Islamic influence since the 15th century, but big waves of Chinese and Indian immigrants over the last 150 years has dramatically changed its racial and religious make-up. Now, about 40 percent of Malaysians are non-Muslim.
How about the line from the Chief Justice: “You can’t at whim and fancy convert from one religion to another,” about a conversion that took place over a decade ago!
In 1 Corinthians 10:21-22 the Apostle Paul declares in no uncertain terms, You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? In short, you can’t live a double life. Can you imagine the apostle’s reaction to a Corinthian elder (and yes, this is assuming Paul would not first question why he is talking to female elder!) who said, “I am 100% Christian and 100% a devotee of Aphrodite. At the most basic level, I understand the two religions to be compatible. That’s all I need. I look through Jesus and I see Aphrodite”? You don’t have to imagine his reaction. You just read it in the first sentence of the paragraph.
The story of the Rev. Ann Holmes in Washington and the story of Lina Joy in Malaysia provide a remarkable lesson about religion. For the former, religion is like a fashion accessory, putting a Muslim prayer scarf on the head five times a day and wearing an Episcopal clerical collar in between times. And it all feels good inside. For the latter, religion is a question of basic identity—under whose law will I live, whom shall I marry, where will I go, will I put myself and my family in jeopardy by standing for my faith against powers opposed to that faith, will I live or die?
In stating the issue this way, I do not doubt Rev. Holmes’ sincerity in her beliefs, but I do question whether she has any understanding of Christianity or Islam that does justice to either religion. She speaks of her “conversion” as a matter of identity, but that identity seems to boil down to the idea that you can be Muslim at breakfast, Episcopalian at dinner (in the South this is the meal eaten around noon), and Muslim again by happy hour (but I think you’d want to be Episcopalian at happy hour).
Call me when the New York Times reports on the imam who adopts Judaism as a supplemental faith.
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