Taken: Brides

They came for elderly, living or departed. Then they came for your kids. Now, they've have come for your brides. Sounds like a tagline for a horror movie doesn't it?

We have the police force to catch the criminals. For everyone else, there's JAIS.

Whoever thinks Malaysia is not an Islamic country is clearly delusional. Malaysia was never a secular state in it's full sense because we enforce Sharia Laws. A secular country does not instituitionalise religious laws. Secularism separates state and religion.

Red indicates states with state religions. Blue indicates those without state religions aka secular. Source- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secular_state

In the scale between liberalism and theocracy in Malaysia, and judging by recent and past developments, the scale tilts in favour of religion.

The Muslim religious authorities have been slowly asserting their powers for the past 20 years. Many incidents such as this that have been publicised through the years, and then forgotten. The people have short memories. Everytime an incident is publicised, they react as though it's something new.

I can't speak for the Muslims, but the possibility of Buddhist monks or Hindu priests doing the same, is close to zero. Because the Buddhists and Hindu communities will not tolerate such meddling and abuse.

Excerpts from an article:

Jais denies raiding Hindu temple, says wanted to speak to bride about her religion 

 - http://news.malaysia.msn.com/tmi/jais-denies-raiding-hindu-temple-says-wanted-to-speak-to-bride-about-her-religion

• only investigating complaints from the public and took a statement from the bride to ascertain her religious status. 

I wonder which members of the public complained. I suspect it would have to be those close to the bride and bridegrooms' families. It also proves that JAIS have absolute authority over Muslims.

• Checks on the bride's MyKad showed that she was Muslim, and Jais officers took her away for questioning before she was released. 

• department acted under Selangor’s Non-Islamic Religions (Control of Propagation Among Muslims)

In this country, it is easy to convert to Islam. Even kids are able to do it. But to get out, not so easy. And in this case, the bride being a Muslim, will not be able to marry any guy who is not a Muslim. It's the law. She will need to go through the lenghty process to change her religion out of Islam.

• Jais's actions have been condemned by the Malaysia Hindu Sangam, the Bar Council and the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf)

• The Bar's human rights committee co-chair Andrew Khoo said Jais's action of going into the temple was tantamount to trespassing. 

• "We have a serious problem in this country. The civil service is dominated by Malay and Muslim-centric officers who bulldoze their personal beliefs in the supremacy of their religion in the government administration. - P. Waytha Moorthy 

JAIS would be considered to have trespassed if the temple was closed. If it happened during visiting hours, it is open to the public. Morever, they have authority to do so because a Muslim was in the compound. Remember, Muslims are under their authority.

Apparently, the bride's father converted the kids to Islam when they were young, before he abandoned them. The kids grew up as Hindus, so I presume the rest of the family and their mother are Hindus. Has it ever occured to anyone why such conversion incidences are so prevalent among Hindus?

Anyway, even if this couple managed to get married and have kids, what are the chances that JAIS will not come after their kids years down the road?

To avoid future problems, perhaps it should be regulated that when non-Muslims convert to Islam, their families should be notified and reactions recorded. For minors, consent from both parents should be mandatory.

But the easiest solution is to just keep out of people's personal lives.

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Hindraf: Jais raid on Hindu wedding unlawful

PETALING JAYA: The NGO Hindraf has accused the Selangor Islamic Religious Affairs Department (Jais) of conducting an unlawful and unconstitutional raid on a wedding reception that was being held in a Hindu temple.

“This action by Jais clearly shows disrespect to the sensitivities of non-Muslims and their place of worship. They clearly crossed the boundaries of their jurisdiction,” said Hindraf chief, P Waythamoorthy.

“The overzealous attitude by the Jais officers shows that they are given a free hand to interfere into the personal life of a non-Muslim individual and they seem to have impunity from the law.
“The absolute arbitrary power of these Jais officers to interfere into the non-Muslim affairs needs to be stopped immediately.

“There is a clear infringement of Article 11 of the supreme law of this country as seen in this matter.”
Yesterday Jais stopped a Hindu wedding in Petaling Jaya and detained the 32 year old bride.

Jais are investigating the case under the 1988 Enactment (Control of Propagation Amongst Muslims), which cites it as an offense to persuade, influence or incite any Muslim to change their faith.
According to a Jais official, the bride’s identity card identifies her as a Muslim.

“The woman did not know that her father had registered her and three of her siblings as Muslims.
“She only found out when a relative saw their birth certificates,” the unnamed Jais official was quoted as saying in a Malay news daily yesterday.

Her father, who had abandoned her a long time ago, had been responsible for registering her as a Muslim but she was raised and grew up as a Hindu.

She said that she had gone to the National Registration Department (NRD) to make a change on the religious status in her MyKad, once in 2007 and again last April.

She failed on both attempts as she was unable to obtain her father’s signature. - http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2014/06/02/hindraf-jais-raid-on-hindu-wedding-unlawful/