Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - An ethnic Indian man was buried according to Muslim rites by Islamic authorities despite claims by his family that he had renounced the religion, reports said here today.
The case, which comes a year after an ethnic Indian Malaysian soldier was buried according to Islamic rites despite protests by his Hindu wife, is likely to fuel a debate over rights of religious minorities.
According to the Pahang Islamic Religious Department, Chandran Dharma Dass had converted to Islam and acquired the name Mohammad Arfan in 2001. The 28-year-old youth died on Wednesday and both the religious department and his family tried to claim his body for funeral.
The youth was buried in his hometown in Gopeng, Perak.
Chandran's family claimed he renounced Islam in 2002 after his plans to marry a Muslim woman did not materialised, Bernama news agency reported.
Chandran's uncle, Mohan Dass Muniandy, said his nephew eventually married a Thai woman in 2004 and did not practice Muslim traditions.
However, Kuantan Islamic religious officer Syarifuddin Aisa Osman said the deceased had not embraced any other religion after converting to Islam.
"Based on this, clearly the deceased was a Muslim and should be buried according to Islam and this cannot be disputed by his family or other parties.
"However, on his family's request to see the remains for the last time, we agreed to take the remains to Gopeng for burial at a Muslim cemetery there," he said.
The remains of Chandran was taken under police escort.
Nearly 60 per cent of the country's 26 million people are ethnic Malay Muslims, while the large ethnic Chinese and Indian minority communities mostly practice Hinduism, Christianity and Buddhism.
Osman advised those who had converted to Islam to immediately apply for new identity card for verification and inform their family to avoid confusion after their death.
"We don't have a law or specific provisions that require Muslim converts to tell their families that they have embraced Islam. In fact, we ourselves cannot tell anyone of their conversion if they want to keep it secret," he said.