Thank you, Umran Kadir for highlighting the verses of the Quran with regards to preserving the right to one's faith. Your bid to prove the point of religious freedom, unfortunately, does not coincide with the understanding of the verses.
It is true that there is no compulsion in religion because faith is the choice of one's conscience and more important, the inner guidance that leads one to choose. But if someone were to choose Islam out of his own will, he must understand that there is provision in the faith of Islam that apostasy is prohibited.
Your quotation of the verses must be understood generally, but specifically, in a case where one has already chosen Islam, it must be read with the other Quranic verses in 2:217. I do not intend to go further on the punitive consequences as provided in the Syariah, but would just like to correct your misleading interpretation of the verses so that other readers will not be misguided.
I would like to stress that what I said was in the provision of someone who is already a Muslim and then commit apostasy. I was not referring to depriving non-Muslims of their right to freedom of faith.
Apostasy must be understood as a measure to protect and preserve the faith. It is not meant to deprive the right of others to their faith. It is the right of any faith to condemn apostasy as it will lead to a serious undermining of one's profession to the faith.
The right to one's faith and practice is protected in our Constitution but the Syariah Criminal Law as legalised in the authority of the state prohibits apostasy. That law is specifically applied only to Muslims.
A Muslim understands well this ruling and considers it as a protector to preserve his faith. Ayah Pin's issue is not about freedom of faith, it's about protecting the faith of Islam. What's wrong with that?
In this regard, Elizabeth Wong's article about the state and faith has failed to understand two very important points - that Islam is deeply rooted in the cultural and traditional values of our society and that the notion of freedom does not take into consideration the understanding of Islam in the context of religious freedom.
Failure to understand these two points will force us to discuss the issue of religious freedom out of context in relation to our unique society and create more confusion.
But I do agree on the other issues involving Ayah Pin including how the authority handled the situation, how manipulative the state government is being to divert attention (from the demolishing of the mosque in Kemaman, for example), the abuse of power by enforcement officers (this happens in many instances) and the matter of rights during captivity.
The technicalities of the problem must not be associated with the principles in that technicalities can be improvised while the principles remain.
And Dr Syed Alwi Ahmad's comments about my understanding of the issue is merely a pre- conceived and stereotyped labelling to PAS. He is being too simplistic by labeling my notion of religious freedom as conservative without understanding the substance of argument.
The writer is chairman of PAS' National Unity Bureau.
