Negri Sembilan to enforce new laws for Muslim converts

Negri Sembilan will put in place new laws for Muslim converts. Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan said the move is to protect the sanctity of Islam. – The Malaysian Insider pic, February 5, 2015.

Several proposed new regulations will be enforced in Negri Sembilan in a move to strengthen the law on converting to Islam as stipulated in the Administration of the Religion of Islam (Negri Sembilan) Enactment 2003.

Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan said the proposed regulations would not only strengthen the enactment, but would also avoid controversy and, most importantly, would ensure that Islam would not be ridiculed or insulted just because of a wrongdoing of a Muslim convert.

"The new regulations are aimed at protecting the sanctity of Islam and at preventing the religion from being insulted and ridiculed just because of a wrongdoing of an individual."

He said this to reporters after attending a briefing by Negri Sembilan Islamic Religious Council (Mains) to Yang di-Pertuan Besar Negeri Sembilan Tuanku Muhriz Ibni PAlmarhum Tuanku Munawir in Seremban today.

Mohamad, who is also the religious council chairman, said the new regulations, among others, required a non-Muslim to obtain dissolution of marriage from his or her spouse before converting to Islam in Negri Sembilan and that he or she must make a statutory declaration about having converted to Islam to prevent future problems.

"If he or she converted to Islam first and then decided to dissolve the marriage, there will be problems, so it is better to dissolve the marriage first before converting to Islam.

"The statutory declaration is also vital to prevent family disputes over the remains of a Muslim convert," the menteri besar said.

Mohamad said the new regulations had been consented by the Yang di-Pertuan Besar Negri Sembilan and need not to be tabled at the legislative assembly, but only the approval of the executive council. – Bernama