Criminal bullying of the poor into Islam

Helen Ang
Aug 5, 10
12:50pm

Share 0Malaysia is aiming for yet another world record. We may have had a 15-month-old Indian baby ostensibly able to recite in Arabic the kalimah syahadah or affirmation of faith - 'There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is His messenger'.

Yesterday the Penang High Court denied S Banggarma's application to quash her so-called conversion to Islam. Below are the dates as to Malaysia's possible claim for an unparalleled child prodigy:

•Aug 1982: Banggarma's date of birth
•Nov 1983: Conversion (I) to Islam in Pahang*
•?? Placed in Ramakrishna orphanage
•1987 or 1990? Moved to Taman Bakti orphanage
•Dec 1989: Conversion (II) to Islam in Penang
* disputed

Banggarma is a 28-year-old homemaker challenging the validity of the conversion certificate made out in her name. The authorities have put forward a claim that Banggarma's parents converted themselves and their children to Islam in November 1983 in Rompin, Pahang. Yesterday, the court pronounced itself satisfied that this was indeed the case.

On the other hand, Banggarma is holding Perkim officer Raimi Abdullah responsible for her conversion after he took her away from Ramakrishna orphanage. She has named him as well as Perkim president Mahathir Mohamad as defendants in her suit.

Welfare department director-general Meme Zainal Rashid stated that Banggarma was placed in a home (Rumah Kanak-Kanak Taman Bakti in Kepala Batas, Penang) from March 1990 by court order “after she was found wandering aimlessly in Sungai Petani, Kedah”. This claim is disputed by Banggarma who believes that she was transferred to the home in 1987 together with her siblings.

Banggarma's lawyer has produced her conversion certificate. The inference is that it does not make sense for an individual to be converted twice. Hence, her infant conversion alleged by the Penang Islamic Religious Council is questionable.

Furthermore any conversion at the ages of eight and/or one-plus was clearly neither of Banggarma's own free will.

Making 1Malaysia 1Islam

In fact, Banggarma's 1989 conversion looks to be ethically fraudulent. What kind of sick, twisted mind did the Muslim zealots have who tricked a child into it?

Banggarma has refuted the claim by the Penang Islamic Religious Council that it was her father who converted to Islam in 1983. She was reported in the Star (Nov 25, 2009) as saying: “Three of my siblings were placed in the welfare home along with me and we all have conversion certificates dated Dec 28, 1989. How could my father have converted us in 1983 when my sister was not even born?”

Thus the contention by Penang Islamic Religious Council president Shabudin Yahaya that the later certificate was to “reconfirm Banggarma's [earlier] conversion” sounds dubious.

One would also ask Shabudin whether the function of a government-run orphanage is to protect children or to proselytise to them.

However, it appears that Mashitah Ibrahim, deputy minister in charge of Islamic affairs, has already addressed this very issue last year. She was quoted in The Sun (Nov 22, 2009) as commending the orphanage for taking the initiative to preach on Islam. In the context of Banggarma's conversion, Mashitah said it was the responsibility of the orphanage to then bring up the child according to true Islamic teachings.

It is obvious that Banggarma's guardians failed dismally in the task. Banggarma has declared that she will battle to the end to profess her Hindu faith. “I was born a Hindu so I will die a Hindu.”

It is a basket-case country that insists on handcuffing someone under such circumstances to Islam. And they want to throw away the key too; Banggarma has been told that she must seek remedy in the Syariah Court.

Aside from leaving Banggarma in legal limbo, the state has also deprived her children of their father's name in their birth certificates as well as made it impossible for Banggarma and S. Sockalingam to register their marriage.

Force-feeding bitter medicine

The Little Mullah Napoleons have been rampaging like a many-headed hydra. Malaysians, particularly the non-Muslims, have been too timid all this while to subdue the creature.

Some Bangsa Malaysia First-ers - in their asinine desire to be seen as politically correct and endearing multiculturalists - have shouted down the alarm bells ringing out the untrammelled Islamisation of our country.

Islam is forced on the weak and the vulnerable. The child Banggarma recalled how she attended Muslim prayer sessions along with the other children in the home.

Human Rights Party pro-tem secretary-general P Uthayakumar (right) cited an episode in 2007 where a 17-year-old Hindu youth studying in a residential vocational school was “pressured and brainwashed” to convert to Islam.

Bernama reported last November that Jakim, the Malaysian Islamic Development Department, placed 200 officers in orang asli settlements nationwide to “educate” the fringe community on Islam. Jakim is an agency under the Prime Minister's Department (PMD).

Bukit Bendera MP Liew Chin Tong revealed that according to federal budget estimates, PMD has a total budgetary outlay of RM12.1 billion for this year alone. Its minister Nazri Aziz told Parliament in reply to a question that PMD presently has a staff of 43,544 after hiring 25,332 people last year.

Given the huge numbers on their payroll and PMD's generous cash flow, the 200 Jakim officers sent to preach to the orang asli is peanuts in terms of expenditure - ultimately borne by the hapless taxpayer. For more details on the other Islamic agencies and statutory bodies under PMD, please refer my earlier Malaysiakini articles (see listing on top right of page).

On how the bureaucracy uses NEP-like means and methods to coax and coerce the minorities into embracing Islam, read my latest CPI article 'Enforcing NEP on minority religions'.

This is M'sia today

A recent Merdeka Center survey of voters to gauge public attitudes is sobering for its illumination on the religious values held by Malaysians. The centre's mid-July findings were drawn from 3,141 adult respondents. These were representative of Malaysia's ethnic ratio and interviewed between January and April 2010.

Below is my summary of segments of the report:

Merdeka Center found 13 percent of the electorate to be True Believers, of which 82 percent, quite naturally, think hudud should be implemented. It may surprise you somewhat that 67 percent of them are urban dwellers.

The second cluster (15 percent of the electorate) is the Accommodative Working Class of whom many are civil servants; 83 percent say religion is very important; 81% disapprove of co-habitation before marriage.

The third cluster (57 percent non-bumiputera) is the Disgruntled White Collar Worker. They are pro-Pakatan; 33 percent say religion is not important while 43 percent believe it all right for a couple to live together without any intention of getting married.

The fourth cluster is the Insecure Underclass (82 percent bumiputera/46 percent rural). Half the Malays in this group think “the non-Malays are trying to take over the country”; 74 percent agree to hudud.

The fifth cluster is the Pro-establishment Working Class (17 percent of the electorate/98 percent bumiputera). Religion is very important to them and a whopping 96 percent identify themselves according to faith affiliation. They support Malay unity under Umno.

The sixth cluster, the Partisan Underclass (13 percent of the electorate), has high trust in the BN/Umno government. Their education is 73 percent secondary school level and below; 87 percent say religion is important and one has to be religious to be moral.

The seventh and final cluster is the Disenchanted Bystanders (16 percent of the electorate/55 percent non-bumiputera). Politically they “lean slightly” to Pakatan; 73 percent feel they are unfairly treated (presumably by the system); 30 percent are of the opinion that religion is not important among the non-Malays.

One might take the Merdeka Center survey results to imply that Malaysia has overall become a highly religious country. Those who are less religiously inclined or less observant of faith rituals are in the minority.

If you - who are few - disagree with the treatment meted out to Banggarma, you'd better stop sitting on your hands and pretending to 'hear no evil, speak no evil'. Burying your head in the sand doesn't mean trouble won't come find you for something or other, sometime or other.