Where body snatching is more than a B-grade movie of alien invasion
We have all read about the often pointless battles by families of the deceased who had to go to court to fight for the body and later on, the property and money of the deceased, whenever the Islamic religious departments come into the picture.
Over in Malaysiakini, this family’s case was thrown out by the High Court twice. And this is despite the fact that they are being represented by one of the best lawyers in the country and our Bukit Gelugor MP Karpal Singh.
Last Friday, S.Selvam’s application for injunction (an order to stop the Perak and Penang religious departments from taking his half brother’s body and burying it the Muslim way) was thrown out and then Karpal submitted another application for another injunction.
Again, on Monday, they lost. The religious departments are allowed to take the body and bury it according to Muslim rites. The family was distraught and even Karpal was not too happy with it and they are now appealing the decision in the court of appeals.
It is cases like this that has made a lot of non-Muslim people jittery and scared of the Islamic religious departments and the Muslims in general. It instilled in them a fear that the Muslims are out to get them, even in death.
In many of these cases, the deceased had converted in the sly and neglected to inform his family so upon his death, his family would of course be outraged and shocked that his body was being claimed by religious departments out of the blue.
However, there are also cases where the deceased had not converted to Islam and yet the religious departments insisted that they had and commenced to seize their body and their properties and other belongings left behind by the deceased (for non-Muslims can’t inherit Muslim property, or so I was told).
It is the second scenario that scares the non-Muslims more. And what makes it worse was when cases like this was brought to civil courts, the syariah courts’ decisions was taken into consideration. Which brings to the fore, once again, does the Syariah Courts have jurisdiction to do this at all? How could a Syariah Court’s decision have jurisdiction on a non-Muslim?
With questions like this being raised and no answers in sight, it only serve to lead more misunderstandings, mistrust and racial tension.
As a non-Muslim and trying to look at this objectively, I feel that the affected families do have the right to feel that there is no justice at all in Malaysia when their cases were thrown out after meddling by the Syariah court. It would only make it seem that the Syariah Court has the right to impose its Islamic laws on non-Muslims and seem that it has more jurisdiction than the civil courts.
So, my advise to fellow non-Muslims in Malaysia are:
1. If you had actually convert to Islam, PLEASE do inform your family, write it in a your last will and testament if you must. Just make damn sure your family knows about it before you kick the bucket so that it could spare them all the heartache and time of battling in court over your body and belongings.
2. And if you had no intention whatsoever of converting to Islam (as in you have a very strong faith in your own religion), then PREPARE a blardy Will already. You may think you are still too young to be thinking of a Will but if you are already working and earning an income with EPF and Socso, then it is time that you write a Will. There are plenty of Will writing services available. Just spare your family the problems that they could be faced with if you were to suddenly drop dead. You never know. Nobody is immortal and we do not know when is the time we die. Oh yeah, remember to add the line:
“I, so and so, am of sound mind as at when and when and I hereby declare that am NOT a Muslim, HAVE never been a Muslim, will NEVER be a Muslim and had NEVER converted to Islam at any point of time. I have always been and will die as a Buddhist/ Hindu / Christian/ etc”
Remember to have two reliable witnesses to attest to your mental soundness at the time you sign that Will.
The most recent ‘body snatching’ case is indeed a sad one. You can read about it in Malaysiakini.
My only wish is to relate body snatching to alien invasions in movies and not to actual incidents like this were the grieving families had to suffer a long drawn out battle in the courts only to come our disappointed and above all, denied the chance to perform their last duties (as in the funeral rites) to their loved ones.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
