INCREDIBLE ODDS

PRAY FOR THIS COUPLE AS THEY SEEK TO WED!

Incredible OddsJane Perlez/TN (Aug 28, 2006)Lina Joy says she has felt "more peace in [her] spirit and soul after having become a Christian."

The New York Times has published an extraordinary article about Lina Joy, a Malaysian woman who converted from Islam to Christianity eight years ago, and since then has endured extraordinary hurdles in her desire to marry the man in her life.

Five years ago she reportedly started proceedings in the civil courts to seek the right to marry her Christian fiancé and have children. In an affidavit to a lower civil court in 2000, she is quoted as saying she felt "more peace in my spirit and soul after having become a Christian."
Her name is currently said to be a household word in a predominately Muslim country. She is arguing that Malaysia's Islamic Shariah courts, which control such matters as marriage, property and divorce, do not have jurisdiction over her, but civil courts have said Malays cannot renounce Islam, because the Constitution defined Malays to be Muslims. It has created a firestorm of street protests and death threats.

Since then, says reporter Jane Perlez, threats against Ms. Joy had become so insistent, and the passions over her conversion so inflamed, he had concluded there was no room for her and her fiancé in Malaysia.

Joy's lawyer, Benjamin Dawson, said "Malaysia is at a crossroads. Do we go down the Islamic road, or do we maintain the secular character of the federal constitution that has been eroding in the last 10 years?"

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/24/world/asia/24malaysia.html