As expected, the High Court ruled against the application by S Kaliammal, the wife of deceased M Moorthy on the issue of his apparent conversion to Islam.

The summary of the proceedings as published in a mainstream daily is very shocking and chilling to the core. If indeed Moorthy had converted to Islam, the prosecutors or the officials from the various Islamic agencies could have provided documentary evidence on it. Instead, none were adduced as evidence in court and this created a wide hole in their argument to validate the findings of the Syariah Court.

If valid evidence had been produced in the High Court that Moorthy had converted to Islam, then there should be no issue at all as we ought to respect the individual's right to embrace the religion he so desires but in this case there appears nothing to suggest he had.

Even more heart-wrenching is that Kaliammal has no recourse to the laws of the land as it now appears that the syariah law predominates our civil law - in short she has no remedy at all, never mind the fact that the proceedings in the Syariah Court was done quietly through an ex-parte application. How did it come to this in the first place? This is a very, very dangerous and preposterous and even treacherous path the course of this country is being moulded into.

The fact that arguments by the counsel from the Bar Council and the one representing the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and Sikhism came to nought suggests that any legal or civil recourse will only see the non-Muslims stampeded and deprived of their just rights.

The alternative to this is equally frightening but I would not be surprised if, one day, this turns into a reality. I just could not understand the non-Muslims in this country. Why are we still continuing to vote for the Barisan Nasional? The MIC has not been able to do anything on this.

Much of our rights have been diluted because of the passive stand the interfaith council has taken. We need not have to go up in arms but a definite and uncompromising rebuke would make sure that we are no pushovers, unless the officials in the council are nothing more than warming their seats on government handouts.