Malaysian Islamic Authorities in New Corpse Row: Report

January 21, 2008

Author: Staff Writer

Original Source: AFP

Malaysian police have seized the body of an ethnic Chinese man in the latest dispute between Islamic authorities and family members over a disputed conversion, a report said Monday.

The eldest son of Gan Eng Gor, who died on Sunday aged 74, said his father became a Muslim last July, but his other children reject the claim and insist their father was a Buddhist.

The dispute comes just days after a court ordered a Christian woman's body be returned to her family after Islamic authorities admitted they were wrong in claiming she had converted.

The cases have fed accusations over the growing "Islamisation" of Malaysia, where the population is dominated by Muslim Malays living alongside ethnic Chinese and Indian communities.