I refer to the Malaysiakini report 'Discrepancies in Banggarma's conversion' .

I am ashamed of the Muslims in this country, they have given Islam a bad name, a bad image and no right-thinking non-believer will take Islam seriously judging from what is happening.

I was indeed proud when I found out that the Christians and Sikhs referred to God as ‘Allah’ and it is our belief that Allah is the only one and true God. We should be happy that others are being drawn unto Allah, but alas we have men who think otherwise.

There are those who give the entire world a false impression of Islam and it is they we should ban, not papers and other publications that refer to Allah as ‘Allah’ just because they are not Islamic publications or Muslims.

Now we have this case of the lady called Banggarma and it is evidently clear that she does not want to be a Muslim. It is very doubtful if she is one look at the contradicting evidence. This woman was not told about her own conversion, if she had she would be a practising Muslim today.

If she was converted in November 1983 she would have been only a one-year-old child then, and a child who was converted as one would have no difficulty with Islam as that would make her almost a Muslim by birth.

This therefore brings us to the question of the veracity of the statement of Welfare Department Director-General Meme Zainal Rashid that Banggarma was converted in 1983 for then there is the question of her conversion in 1989 at the age of seven.

I quo 'Meme had told Malaysiakini yesterday that Banggarma, whose Muslim name is Siti Hasnah Vangarama Abdullah, was placed into the welfare home in Kepala Batas in March 1990 following a order under the Juvenile Courts Act of 1947, for her own protection.’ Meme claimed that Banggarma was found wandering aimlessly in Sungai Petani, Kedah.

Meme’s claim was challenged very eloquently by Banggarma herself (an orphan child who spent her entire childhood in a government-run orphanage) when she stated that it was a lie. If that was the case, how was she converted in 1989 if she was brought into the welfare home in 1990?

‘It's a lie. The department is trying to cover this up,’ said the mother of two.

What nonsense is this? It is done in the name of Islam, it is done by persons who claim to be Muslims but it can't be if they use Islam to deceive. This has to stop and stop right now.

Moreover, with ‘body-snatching’, I can't face my friends when they question me on this. I show them my disgust on this too. Why is it a person who converts to Islam keeps the conversion a secret from his own family? This not something that can be allowed in Islam as he/she is to share the conversion with his or her family first. Till he/she dies, why keep quiet together with the entire Islamic community who have knowledge of it?

This is the perception and perception is reality especially in such cases. it looks like Islam wants to grab the wealth of non-Muslim families for themselves - that is what I was told and I had nothing to say.

Our prime minister must take a stand on such issues and the right place to have this addressed is in a secular court without a Muslim judge as we all know what Islam requires of a Muslim judge, so stop putting him or her in a spot.

The decision to transfer such cases to the Syariah courts have always been made by Muslim judges. The non-Muslims should have the right not to be bound by the decisions of the Syariah courts.