Reading the letter regarding the Lina Joy issue, I shall try to explain further my views. Absolutely, comments are getting hot and sometimes missing the point. Let me write a disclaimer first:
'Anything I write here, if it is wrong according to Islamic tenets, principles, would be my own fault for I am an ignorant idiot. As in idiomatic expression - I am just a blind man trying to explain what an elephant looks like, feeling it with my hands and telling everyone what I think it looks like, when I could not see it. Anything good is from Allah the Most Knowledgeable and anything bad, is from me.'
Does the National Registration Department have the power to erase the definition for religion on your MyKad? Well, the NRD is just a government department. It only does its job; it doesn't have the authority to do that. So the NRD was right in advising Lina Joy to go to the Shariah Court to get the certificate that certifies she has renounced Islam.
You see, all Muslims in this world are like a community. If one Muslim dies, it would be the responsibility of the Muslim community to accord him or her Muslim rites of burial - the washing and the last prayers. If Lina Joy has renounced Islam, (this has to be done and witnessed by the ruler of the Muslims) then the Muslim community washes their hands of her, her actions, her last rites and her burial is of no concern to the Muslim community.
The Muslim community 'tidak berdosa' (is without sin) if Lina Joy dies tomorrow and she be cremated or buried without being accorded the last rites. It would be none of our responsibility.
And who represent the 'ruler' in the Malay states? The Shariah courts, of course. So all Lina Joy has to do is go to the Shariah court and renounce Islam. So we Muslims can wash our hands and our responsibilities of her.
By the same argument, if someone in Malaysia finds a dead body and if there is a MyKad which says that he or she professes Islam, then it would be our responsibility to accord that dead person the Muslim last rites.