Faktor dan Cabaran Pertukaran Agama dalam Kalangan Masyarakat Melayu-Islam di Malaysia

Abstract

The problem of apostasy in Malaysia has been a polemic which concerns everyone especially among the Malay community. The term of Malay under the Federal Constitution is defined as professes the religion of Islam, speaks Malay and practices Malay culture. Basically, Islam and Malay according to definition of Constitution should never be separated. This article discusses about the vagueness of position and the role of Islam in the Federal Constitution and the Laws of Malaysia, which caused the effort of defending the Islamic theology of Muslims in law seemed less effective. It is also discussed about the challenges of religious conversion among the Malay-Muslims in Malaysia, starting with the incident of Natrah in 1950 until the modern age of globalization now. The increasing number of cases of the religious conversion among the Malay-Muslims from time to time raised fears of many people. It was recorded from the year 1999–2003, there were 750 applications to change a name from Muslim to non-Muslim at the National Registration Department (JPN) (Mohd Azam Mohamed Adil, 2006). Next, this article analyzes the factors that led to the religious conversion in the midst of community. Based on the study, the factor that contributed to the religious conversion is due to the lack of education and ignorance of religion, love, coeval marriage, religious missionary movement and the process of modernization, the relaxation of laws, the administration of religion and community‟s leader, Islamic education system, less role missionary, discrimination of convert muslims. Finally, this article discusses about the issue of apostasy from the viewpoint of the constitution and Islam.