The Malaysian news site Sun2Surf today has an extensive account of the arguments in Malaysia's Federal Court in the Lina Joy case. Joy converted from Islam to Christianity and wants the word "Islam" removed from her identity card, but the National Registration Department insists that she first furnish an apostasy certificate from the Sharia Court. (See prior posting.) During oral argument, the Chief Justice asked the lawyer for the Federal Territories Religious Council, Sulaiman Abdullah, why it is not discriminatory to require religion on the identity car of Muslims, but not of non-Muslims. Abdullah responded: "It is a useful provision and serves as a practical process like identifying a person's religion at death, the collection of zakat (tithes), for marriage purposes, for identification during the fasting month and so on." The case has attracted an unusual amount of attention in the United States because the American group, The Becket Fund, is heavily involved in the representation of Ms. Joy in the case, and has written a memo for Malaysian counsel analyzing the international and comparative law issues involved.
UPDATE: On July 4, Bernama reported additional details of oral arguments in the case and said that the Court will deliver its decision as quickly as possible.
