Malaysia,
I thought these guys were better than the rest , and the best Islamic country in the world…Alas, what a fall…
Muslim burial for Malaysian hero
A Malaysian mountaineering hero will be buried as a Muslim, against the wishes of his Hindu wife, who denied he had converted to Islam before his death.
The decision follows a High Court ruling that it cannot override the country’s Islamic courts in matters of religious conversion.
An Islamic court had said the man, M Moorthy, had become a Muslim last year.
M Moorthy, 36, was a Hindu when he became a national hero in 1997 as a member of the first Malaysian expedition to conquer Mount Everest.
But when he died a week ago family supporters and state Islamic officials jostled one another at the mortuary as each tried to claim his body.
An Islamic Sharia court subsequently upheld a claim by his former colleagues in the army that he had become a Muslim last year.
However his family, who want him to have a Hindu funeral, were not allowed to appear before the court to dispute his conversion because they are not Muslims.
The family went to the civil court and argued that Mr Moorthy was a practising Hindu right up to a recent accident when he fell from his wheelchair and lapsed into a coma.
They say he was even interviewed for local television two months ago about his preparations for the Hindu festival of Diwali.
But the High Court agreed with government lawyers who argued the civil court had no jurisdiction.
Lawyers for the dead man’s relatives say the ruling leaves non-Muslims little protection in family disputes considered under Islamic law.
