June-19, 2007 (Tuesday) : A Candle-Light Vigil for MRS. REVATHI MASOOSAI, Incarcerated and Prevented by the SYARIAH Court to become a HINDU

From People's Parliament Blog: Read here

MUST WATCH : CLICK HERE TO SEE THE VIDEO FROM ALJAZEERA TV SHOWING REVATHI MEETING HER HINDU HUSBAND (SURESH) AT THE GATE OF THE ULU YAM REHABILITATION CENTRE -
Put on your speakers (courtesy of malaysiakini)

The video captured emotional moments when Revathi met her husband (Suresh) on either side of the locked gate at the entrance of the Ulu Yam Rehabilitation Centre.

The conversation of a few minutes between the couple - in Tamil - was closely monitored by a religious official.

The footage also showed a camp official threatening the programme maker to stop filming, saying that he would call the police if the crew continued shooting.

The footage showed Suresh comforting his wife and telling her to be brave and strong: “I am making every effort to get you out of here. We will be together again.”

The footage also showed a camp official threatening the programme maker to stop filming, saying that he would call the police if the crew continued shooting.

Candlelight Vigil

Date: Tuesday, 19 June 2007

Time: 8 p.m.

Venue: Dataran Merdeka (at the flagpole)

Show your support in affirming the supremacy of the Federal Constitution and its protection of our fundamental liberties, including the freedom of belief.

Bring candles, candle-holders and banners.

Members of Catholic Lawyers' Society are urged to attend in unison and show support in affirming the supremacy of the Federal Constitution that affords protection for, inter alia, freedom of religion

There will be a peaceful candlelight vigil in support of Mrs. Revathi Masoosai/Siti Fatimah , and many others like her, who are unable to fully exercise their Constitutionally-guaranteed freedom of faith.

The vigil is an initiative of civil society organisations including:

MCCBCHST (the Malaysian Consultative Council on Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism) and

Various women’s rights groups

All Women’s Action Society (AWAM),

Sisters in Islam (SIS),

Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO),

Women’s Centre for Change, Penang (WCC) and

Women’s Development Collective (WDC)).

BACKGROUND - Summary of Mrs. Revathi Masoosai’s/Siti Fatimah case:

Revathi is an ethnic Indian woman.

She has been held in a Rehabilitation Center run by Islamic authorities since January 2007.

Reason for the incarceration:

Simply because she wants the State to acknowledge she is a Hindu and NOT a Muslim.

Revathi was advised by the Malacca Islamic Religious Department to make an application at the Malacca Syariah High Court to confirm her status as a Hindu.

She did as she was told.

Instead, the Syariah Court ordered her detained in a rehabilitation centre in Ulu Yam, Selangor under Melaka’s Syariah criminal laws for 100 days.

This detention was extended in Revathi’s absence for a further 80 days supposedly because she had NOT “repented”.

In the meanwhile, Revathi’s Muslim mother obtained a Syariah Court order granting her custody of Revathi and Suresh’s 15 month old baby.

That order was enforced on Suresh’s Hindu family with the assistance of the police.

Revathi was born to Indian parents who had converted to Islam before her birth. But she claims she was raised by her grandmother as a Hindu.

She and Suresh were married according to Hindu rites in March 2004.

The family is now torn apart - with the MOTHER in detention, the CHILD with the grandparents and the FATHER in limbo WITHOUT his family.