While the woman had been born to Islamic parents in Malaysia, she had been raised as a Hindu and her religion only became an issue when she married a Hindu man. (In Malaysia, it is illegal for Muslim to marry a non-Muslim.)
When she registered with the Islamic Sharia court in Malaysia to have her religion officially changed to Hindu, she was detained and forced to participate in Islamic ceremonies while subjected to mental torture.
While now released, she must remain in the custody of her parents and continue to undertake weekly religious counseling. I.e., it is still the intent of the Islamic authorities to force her to remain Muslim, and indeed, become a practicing one.
What makes this more disturbing is that even though Malaysia's official religion is Islam, the country's constitution is secular.
Forcing someone to worship a particular religion, whether they are agnostic, atheist or from another religion is morally repugnant and smacks of the thought-police attitudes reminiscent of Stalanist and Fascist dictatorships. What is next? Detention and brainwashing for people who don't like the colours of the flag? This isn't a fine line that was crossed, it was a large, multi-coloured and clearly marked mile-wide stripe that was willingly leapt across by religious authorities conducting nothing less than a programme of brainwashing of people who disagree with them.
References:
- The Brunei Times: "My detention is wrong, says M'sian"
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