PETALING JAYA: Muslims have the responsibility to safeguard the rights of minorities so that they do not feel as though they are being oppressed, says Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz.

       Padang Rengas MP said this when touching on the issue of unilateral conversion during his debate in the Dewan Rakyat on Wednesday (March 2).

       Nazri said they have the responsibility to ensure that the rights and interests of the minorities are taken care of.

       “Some 60% of the country is Muslim and under the federal Constitution, Islam is the religion of the federation. But, that does not mean you can oppress the minority.

       “If you don’t do what is supposed to be done, that means you are oppressing the minority.

       “Non-Muslims will live in fear because every time there is a fight between non-Muslim husband and wife ... they will convert,” he said.

       Nazri said there have already been four to five such cases where it results in the conversion of children without the consent of the other parent.

       Nazri pointed out that a father has no right to change the religion of his children without the consent of the mother.

       He said this in reference to the unilateral conversion of single mother Loh Siew Hong’s three children to Islam by her ex-husband.

       “The father has no right to change the religion of his children unless he discusses it with his wife. If we allow the father to convert, then it is going to be a constructive conversion.

       "This means we allow the conversion of a person without the approval of the mother. It is important that we do not allow this,” he told the Dewan Rakyat on Wednesday (March 3).

       He added that the common usage of the term “parents” is "father and mother”, not "father or mother".

       “Even in Bahasa Malaysia, we do not say it as mother and father, we say mother-father (ibubapa). This means unilateral conversion is not allowed,” he said.

       Nazri said in Islam, they cannot force anyone to convert to their religion.

       “To believe in Islam, there has to be freewill. If there is no evidence of freewill, then it shows that it is forced. Those conversions, we cannot accept,” he said.

       He also pointed out that the issue of those under 18 not having a religion does not arise as the young ones grow up with the common religion of their parents.

       He cited incidents when he was young where he was encouraged to fast when he was between the ages of five to six years old, adding that he was also taught to pray five times a day and had also gone to the mosque.

       “This means that every human, including children, already has a religion. What is the religion? It is the common religion of the parents when they get married,” he said.

       Nazri added that Islam also prioritises justice.

       He lamented the conversion of Indira Gandhi’s children back then, who were also unilaterally converted.

       “As a Muslim, I am not proud of this. It is not fair if a father or mother changes the religion of their children. Don’t do to others what you don’t want others to do to you,” he said.