Legislation to allow wrongfully converted to leave Islam

PETALING JAYA: The government is in the midst of studying the drafting of a new law that will allow people forcefully and wrongfully converted to Islam to leave the religion.
Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Tan Sri Joseph Kurup (pix) said the government is looking at all aspects of the problem to find a solution to it once and for all.
He said towards this, a large group of people have been roped in by the government to get their views and suggestions on how to resolve this problem.
"We have to work out the framework first and then we'll talk to the people (general public)," Kurup told reporters after presenting a mock cheque for RM1 million towards the RM35.5mil Tamil Methodist Church (TMC) Kuala Lumpur's Community Centre building project.
He said in order to have a "perfect bill" the people's opinion and views would all need to be taken into account as well.
Although there is currently no concrete solution to the issue, it does not mean that the government is not looking into finding a solution, Kurup said.
Asked if the government is going to set up a Cabinet committee comprising the relevant authorities to look into the issue as it involves hundreds of Malaysians who were mistakenly or forcefully registered as Muslims, Kurup said, they were looking into it.
"We will take into account all views as long as they can help us achieve our goal of solving the matter," he added.
DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang had on June 5 urged Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to set up a Cabinet committee comprising Home Ministry, National Registration Department and the various state Islamic authorities to provide a speedy resolution and rescue from limbo a few hundred cases of Malaysians who were mistakenly registered as Muslims in their birth certificates or identification cards.
The recent outcry by many members of the public and professionals was when the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (JAIS) disrupted a Hindu wedding ceremony on grounds that the bride, Zarinah Abdul Majid, 32, was Muslim when all her life she has been practising Hinduism.