Monday, August 18, 2008

Study on inter-faith marriages completed, says Suhakam

MUAR: Suhakam has completed its study on issues arising from inter-faith marriages and one spouse changing his religion and will be submitting a report to the Prime Minister’s Department soon.

Among the proposals Suhakam had come up with was for those who planned to embrace Islam to marry a Muslim to study the religion in depth before their conversion, said commissioner Datuk Dr Abdul Monir Yaacob.

He added that family members should also be informed when a non-Muslim wants to embrace Islam so as to avoid problems later in relation to funeral rites or distribution of property after the person’s death.

“We feel that it is appropriate for non-Muslims to distribute their property, if any, to their close relatives before they convert to Islam, said Dr Abdul Monir yesterday.

Property gained after conversion to Islam would be governed by Islamic law, he added at a dialogue here.

On complaints by teachers of defamatory media reports about them, he urged them to submit a memorandum on the matter to Suhakam.

“We will act on the complaint by proposing to the relevant authorities to look into the matter,” he said.

Dr Abdul Monir reminded the teachers participating in the dialogue that the media also had the right to report on matters of public interest, and told the reporters present that they should be responsible in their reporting.

Fellow commissioner Tan Sri Asiah Abu Samah said 631 reports had been lodged against government departments up till August.

More than 100 of the reports were against the police, mostly alleging abuse of power, including brutality during public protests, she added.


http://www.thestar.com.my


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