A Malaysian woman who renounced Islam was sentenced to two years in prison by a Sharia court, the official Bernama news agency said Monday.Judge Mohamad Abdullah ordered Kamariah Ali, 57, a follower of a group that practises teachings that are inconsistent with Islam, to serve the jail term in the northeastern Kelantan state.
The judge said his decision was made in the public interest, adding that Kamariah had committed a serious offence.
"There are many implications from her action. If she dies, some parties will be fighting over where she will be buried," he said.
"What she did was not within the concept of freedom of religion," he added.
Kamariah, a graduate of Al-Azhar University in Egypt, was charged under the Sharia criminal offence Enactment. She had renounced Islam in 2005.
Islam is Malaysia's official religion. More than 60 percent of the nation's 27 million people are Muslim Malays.
But while the constitution defines the ethnic majority Malays as Muslims it also guarantees freedom of religion. The country's minority Chinese and Indians are mostly Buddhists, Hindus or Christians.
Renouncing the faith is one of the gravest sins in Islam.
The court's verdict comes amid mounting racial and religious tensions in multiracial Malaysia, where minority religious groups fear their rights are being undermined, even though the country is traditionally seen as moderate.
Agence France-Presse - 3/3/2008 11:49 AM
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