KUALA LUMPUR, July 6 — The Shah Alam High Court has declared deceased art director Mohan Singh a Muslim at the time of his death, despite protests from his Sikh family, in a ruling which could reignite fresh controversy over Islamic conversion cases.
Today’s ruling comes a week after the Malay Rulers decided to put off until further study the Najib administration’s plans to amend some laws on conversions which would have gone some way in assuaging concerns especially from among the non-Muslim community.
The court ruled today that Mohan had converted to Islam and that the Syariah court had the jurisdiction to determine if he was still a Muslim when he died on May 25.
The Syariah High Court had on June 4 ruled that Mohan was a Muslim when he died and should be buried according to Muslim rites.
Syariah High Court judge Mohamad Khalid Shaee @ Shaii ruled that Mohan’s conversion was valid after hearing testimony from five witnesses and examining the documents brought before the court.
The order was issued following an application by the Selangor Islamic Religious Council (Mais).
Mohan was apparently also known as Mohammad Hazzerry Shah Mohan Abdullah. He was said to have converted to Islam in 1992 in Penang. However, the deceased’s family claimed that the 41-year-old who died of a heart attack, had neither converted nor practised Islam.
They said he had practised Sikhism and had performed the last rites for his late mother three years ago.
The family had filed for a judicial review here against the Sungai Buloh Hospital’s decision not to release the body to them to be cremated according to Sikh rites. - The Malaysian Insider
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