another body tussle

remember the infamous case of moorthy, ex mt everest climber, where when he died, the JAIS (state religious department) wanted to claim his body as the insisted he was a muslim? now we have another case of an indian man, rayappan anthony, who died recently and JAIS wanted to claim his body.

rayappan anthony was born a catholic but he converted to islam in 1990. later on he renounced islam and returned to christianity and had been pracitising christianity all along.

“He was calling out the name of Jesus in his death bed. He never observed the Muslim way of life as he consumed pork and alcohol and had never fasted. He went to church and had even received Holy Communion from a priest days before his death,” said Rayappan’s daughter Jeya Mary.

“Now, after all these years of caring for him, why has JAIS turned up at this painful moment to take away the body of my father, who is no longer a Muslim. Where is the justice?”

the JAIS officers also acted high-handedly when the family show them rayappan’s mykad to prove he is a christian, they said:

Itu MyKad boleh koyak dan buang’ (that MyKad you can tear it up and throw it away).

and:

lawyer, sivanesan also expressed disappointment over the lack of transparency by the JAIS officers, who told him they need not substantiate the dead man’s muslim status with other documents and had the right to claim his body.

so now who is to blame? according to ktemoc, rayappan himself, who did not informed his family of switching over from one religion to another and back and forth. well, he can’t be faulted entirely because, methink, he like many other non muslims did not realise the implications of converting to islam. that’s why about 2 years ago, the bishops of peninsular malaysia issued a letter, and had them printed out by thousands to be distributed to all churches on the implications of conversion to islam. i remember blogging about it but can’t find the post. ah now i know what i must do. i will put it up on the diocese website. so that it is easily available for everyone.