2 Pieces of News, 2 Cents- No 1

Birth-swap Msian man files suit over religion

KUALA LUMPUR - A MALAYSIAN man mistakenly given to Muslim parents at birth has filed a claim to be legally recognised as a Buddhist, the New Straits Times reported on Saturday, amid an ongoing row over religious recognition.

Mr Zulhadi Omar, 29, was registered as a Malay Muslim at birth. But in an incredible chance meeting, an ethnic Chinese couple approached him in a shopping centre in February after noticing his similarity to his real father.

Mr Zulhadi said his lawyer had filed the suit on Friday after Malaysian authorities failed to respond to a written request for his name and religion to be changed on his birth certificate and identity card.

DNA tests have confirmed Zulhadi is the biological son of Teyo Ma Liong and Lim Sik Hai and not his registered Malay Muslim parents.

'On the day that I was born, a woman named Lim Sik Hai also gave birth to a baby boy at the same hospital,' The Star newspaper quoted Mr Zulhadi as saying.

'I was registered a Muslim based on an error at birth. I should have been named Eddie Teyo, son of Teyo Ma Liong and Lim Sik Hai, and a Buddhist.' The move follows the controversial refusal of Malaysia's top secular court to allow a woman who converted from Islam to be legally recognised as a Christian.

The court on Wednesday rejected a request by Lina Joy to have the word 'Islam' removed from her national identity card after her conversion, saying an Islamic, or sharia, court would first have to recognise her conversion.

Ethnic Malays are defined as Muslims from birth. Renouncing the faith is one of the gravest sins in Islam and is rarely allowed by Islamic authorities. -- AFP


The idea of an islamic state is interesting. In fact, the idea of having a religion as something national itself is an interesting idea. True enough, it may be a consensus of the majority of the country's population, but face it- in some ways it constitutes an absolute realization of what Mill describes as a "tyranny of the majority". Inevitably it is impossible to come to a universal agreement on beliefs. Beliefs are what differentiate us as humans just like fingerprints or our voices. To make everybody bound to popular belief, is to infringe on the very sanctity of our persona- to question how we think and act. If truly there is such a thing as benevolent governing, this should not be the case.