Lina Joy

Oh no, Maobi is going to rant again. Actually no, Maobi was going to Rant again but so many others have already done it and done a fine job that I don't need to do anything.

Let's start with Michelle Malkin. She has written a fine piece on the Lina Joy case. The thing I find most interesting is that the lawyer defending Lina Joy is a Muslim.

As Ms Malkin has pointed out the WSJ and the NYT have both covered it. Bear in mind that these papers are on opposite ends of the political spectrum, yet neither of them agree that restricting the right of Mdm Joy to worship as she chooses is right.

Let me be very fair to our Muslim friends in Malaysia. Their side of the argument as I have seen in the press is as follows:

"Allowing Malays to leave Islam automatically will erode the status, the rights and the privileges of Malays"

I'm not even going to point out what a piece of shit the rights and privileges of Malays is as an argument. There is no inherent right or privilege of being Malay. It's just that the government accepts that Malay people were born (as a group) backward and stupid so they need time to catch up. To buy this time, they are given certain handouts. It's like being the guy who goes for dinner but cannot afford to pay. The rest of the diners say "ok, since you are poor we pay for you this time". After a while there seems to be no shame in claiming rights and privileges. I hope they don't mind if the rest of us feel ashamed for them on their behalf. The day you don't need quotas and handouts and preferential treatment is the day you are the same as the rest of us. Until then, please consider yourself a lesser race.

If Islam were to grant permission for Muslims to change religion at will, it would imply it has no dignity, no self-esteem. And people may then question its completeness, truthfulness and perfection.

In other words the only truthfulness and perfection to be found in Islam is via co-ercing others to stay in the fold and pretend to belief? Do any of these fools think that Lina Joy has one iota of desire in her heart to be Muslim? If she did then she would not stomach this lengthy court battle and the death threats. It would be so much more convenient to capitulate.

So it's clear to everyone that she wants to leave yet the Muslim view is that this would affect their dignity and self-esteem. First of all self-esteem is the way you look at yourself. No one and nothing can take that from you or give it to you. Dignity on the other hand is something that you can throw away. Some people who are poor yet work hard every day are the ones who have dignity despite not being rich. Small companies that choose no to cheat on taxes have dignity in spite the obvious incentive to cheat. Well, a faith has dignity in that it says "we believe this to be true" whatever anyones wants to belief themselves. It's only when a faith has no dignity that it will claw out to keep every person it can in the fold. Well done. You've sold your own dignity for one more believer who you and I know doesn't believe anymore.

So besides Ms Malkin, the NYT and the WSJ, who else has covered this case? I will be keeping this list. It is far from exhaustive but I am sure one or two of my five readers will help me by sending any more potential entries.

By the way: Google returns 116,000 links for Lina Joy but only 34,600 for Proton Saga. If the Malaysian government wants to increase the visibility of the local car industry then please get the Proton Saga to marry a Roman Catholic and renounce Islam.

Let me quickly thank everyone for giving a shit about one woman's desire to worship as she chooses out here in Malaysia.