Malaysian Hindus struggle to change Muslim status

KUALA LUMPUR: Two ethnic Indian siblings who claim they are Hindus are battling authorities in majority-Muslim Malaysia to change the religion on their birth certificates, a report said on Friday.

S Jeevanathan, 22, and his sister S Maneemegalay, 21, were certified as Muslims after their father converted from Hinduism to Islam before they were born.   

Their father reverted to Hinduism in 1991, but was buried by Islamic authorities as a Muslim last month despite the protests of his children, who fear the same fate, the New Straits Times reported.   

"Not only had we lost our father but we could not do anything when they came and took away his body," Maneemegalay was quoted as saying.

The siblings, registered as Hindus on their identity cards, are trying to change their Muslim status on their birth certificates but have been turned down so far by Malaysia's National Registration Department. 

"They say it cannot be done. We do not want to suffer my father's fate," Jeevanathan said.

In Malaysia, children born to Muslim parents are automatically certified as Muslims, and conversions out of Islam, considered a grave sin, are rarely sanctioned.

The siblings' dilemma echoes a series of recent high-profile clashes over religious conversions.   

An ethnic Chinese man who was switched at birth and raised as an ethnic Malay Muslim is currently seeking to renounce Islam and change his name after he was reunited with his biological parents.   

In 2005, religious and racial tensions were raised when an ethnic Indian mountaineering hero born a Hindu was buried as a Muslim despite his family's protests.