“…//..It must be a matter of concern to all Malaysians that religious polarization of Malaysians is increasingly a major threat to nation….//…” YB Kit.

I assume by the word “polarization”, it means an increasingly clear dividing of two broad groups and interests – in our context, a reference to Muslim and Non Muslims – in conflicting or contrasting positions.

Now the controversial cases of converts – for examples, Benedict Gopal vs Nur Adryana over children, the taking away of Magendran’s wife Najeera Farvinli and Marimuthu’s wife Raimah Bibi by religious authorities, the taking away of Moorthy’s and Anthony Rayappan’s bodies for muslim burials – invariably polarize because one party is a convert Muslim and the other family member a non Muslim in which the latter alleges his/her rights have been infringed and encroached by State’s enforcement of Sharia….

Lina Joy’s case is different and to be differentiated from the above cases in that it does not involve an alleged infringement or encroachment of non Muslims’ rights by State’s enforcement of Sharia (unless one is talking about the rights of her Christian cook husband).

It involves Azalina Jailani, who was by birth a Malay whom by law was born a Muslim and who claimed she had converted from Islam to Christianity with the name Lina Joy in her identity card to show it and arguing that it came under her right to freedom of religion under Article 11 of the Constitution of Malaysia to have Islam deleted as her designated religion in her NRIC. No non muslim was involved. The case concerns the right of a born muslim to exercise the constitutional right to freedom of religion including to commit apostasy by defination of her faith of her birth.

So if YB were to raise Lina Joy’s case in Parliament, one of the first objection to be raised would conceivably be why is a Non Muslim involved in Muslim affairs relating to apostasy – if at all such an issue on Muslims rights to religious freedom were raised, shouldn’t it be raised by Muslims? What is a non Muslim interest in the case?

Sure there appears to be a polarization about the court outcome of Lina Joy’s case, with many Muslims happy with it and many Non Mulsims the opposite. But that’s about it. Does it, bottomline, infringe any non Muslims’ constitutional right – if no, what is the nature of Non Muslims’ interest in Lina Joy?

How does one respond to such a challenge?

The broad answer to it is that Lina Joy is not just about polarization of views over the court’s decision.

It is really about the Constitution, whether it is still secular in nature as per Tun Salleh Abas’s pronouncement in Che Omar Che Soh v Public Prosecutor, and status of religious freedom in Malaysia that is supposed to be protected by it under Article 11(1) – and how the secular character and the protection of fundamental rights enshrined in it (to protect multiculturalism) have been steadily eroded and displaced over the years (culminating in Lina Joy’s predicament) by the then creeping, and now fast growing emphasis and endorsement (even by the courts) of all interpretations and nuances, Islamic, rather than secular, that in turn has effect of converting the country, in which all Muslims and Non Muslims have a stake, to that of a defacto Islamic State pointing the Middle East way.

It is about how far a government (that advocates Islam Hadari) will appease, give in to and be stymied by the ultra conservative and over zealous groups within the religious establishment lobbying for their agenda and interpretation inconsistent with Islam Hadari and conflicting, to say the least, with secular character of the Federal Constitution and the fundamental liberties for all Malaysians therein enshrined, that Non Muslims have a legitimate stake in that being preserved.

On these issues and so far as Lina Joy’s case exemplify them, even Non Muslims have a stake and therefore the right to speak upon.

Then again the Godless Communists in Stalin Soviet Union and as Mao’s China committed atrocities – but it was not in name of atheism but underthe name of Communism, class struggle, cultural revolution etc.