Word: faithful
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...couldn't know to what extent: a year after the war, Dani converted from Islam to Protestantism after reading a New Testament given to him by American missionaries. "It matched with my philosophy," he says. "Jesus' message is love, to turn the other cheek." Dani keeps his faith close to his chest. "I don't think God wants to be as popular as he is right now," he says. If it doesn't come up, Dani doesn't mention his religion to people he meets, most of whom assume that he's Muslim. After all, he says with a smile...
...Hindu family, but they both officially converted to Islam, the religion practiced by Malaysia's majority Malays. Yet Revathi does not feel welcome in her ethnically and religiously diverse homeland. According to Malaysian law, Muslims can only marry other Muslims. Revathi, who was actually raised in the Hindu faith, had fallen in love with a Hindu man. But because of her parents' earlier conversion, she was deemed a Muslim and a judge refused to change her religious status. Revathi's marriage was never recognized by the state, nor was her daughter's birth. Earlier this year, an Islamic Shari...
...anxiety. Increasingly, the nation's diverse ethnicities live in parallel universes, all Malaysians, yes, but seldom coming together as they once did for meals or classroom discussions. Religion, too, has divided the nation, as some Malaysians assert that a conservative strain of Islam is causing a segment of the faith's worshippers to withdraw from a multicultural society. Malaysia's economy is being challenged by regional competitors, with many questioning the future of the affirmative-action scheme that has served as the country's financial bedrock. At the same time, a nation that once prided itself on its robust institutions...
...family law, while non-Muslims are governed by civil courts. For many years, overlapping issues, as in the case of intermarriage, were quietly negotiated by both courts. But now, Shari'a courts are increasingly refusing to accept conversions out of Islam, arguing that apostasy is illegal in the Muslim faith. At the same time, civil courts have become less willing to rule on religious issues they say are the domain of the Muslim legal system. In a landmark case earlier this year, the nation's highest court decided that it had no jurisdiction to deem a person non-Muslim, because...
...sees a very attractive woman, his eye will wander ... He doesn't look like your classic religious sort of guy.' ALASTAIR CAMPBELL, former spokesman for Tony Blair, on why Blair avoided talking about religion while in office. Blair now says his faith was "hugely important" to his performance while he was British Prime Minister...