Husband of dead Malaysian woman fights for her faith
AP, The Mumbai Mirror
January 4, 2008
http://www.mumbaimirror.com/net/mmpaper.aspx?page=article&sectid=4&contentid=2008010420080104040037453d8dab9d4&pageno=1

Christian man moves court to stop Islamic authorities from giving his wife a Muslim funeral

The Christian husband of a dead Malaysian woman sought to stop Islamic authorities on Thursday from giving her a Muslim funeral amid a dispute over whether she converted to Islam before her death.

The case is the latest in a series of legal conflicts that have alarmed Malaysia’s non-Muslim minorities, including Indians, who have voiced growing fears that courts fail to safeguard their religious rights.

Wong Sau Lan, 54, died in a Kuala Lumpur hospital on December 30. Her husband, Ngiam Tee Kong, received notice from the Federal Territory Islamic Council the next day stating that his wife had converted to Islam on December 24, said Ngiam’s lawyer, Karpal Singh.

When Ngiam later tried to claim her body from the hospital morgue, he was told it would have to be buried by the Islamic Council according to Muslim rites, Karpal said.

The Kuala Lumpur High Court was scheduled to hear Ngiam’s petition later on Thursday for a temporary order to prevent the Islamic Council from taking possession of his wife’s body.

“There was no lawful conversion,” Karpal said. Ethnic Malay Muslims make up about 60 per cent of Malaysia’s 27 million people, while most of the rest are Hindus, Buddhists or Christians from ethnic Indian and Chinese communities.

The case of Ngiam’s wife bears similarities to several other disputes since 2005 involving the burial of people whom Muslim authorities claimed had converted to Islam.

A national debate erupted when Maniam Moorthy, a former Hindu, was buried as a Muslim in December 2005 after an Islamic court ruled he had converted before his death.