The enlightened country of Malaysia

 
NST Online reports a 57-year old woman received a sentence of two years in jail for declaring herself an apostate.
:

The Kuala Terengganu Syariah High Court today jailed... Kamariah Ali two years for declaring herself an apostate in 2005. On Feb 17, the court ruled that the 57-year-old was still a Muslim, but judge Mohamad Abdullah had postponed the sentencing till yesterday to give Kamariah a final chance to repent.

Kamariah had been charged under Section 7 of the Syariah Criminal Offence Enactment (Takzir)(Tereng ganu 2001) for declaring herself an apostate to avoid action being taken against her at the Syariah Lower Court in Besut. For this she risked a three year jail term or a RM5,000 fine or both... However, he felt Kamariah was insincere when she said she had repented.

Mohamad said: "I am still not satisfied with the accused. When I walked into court and greeted her by saying ‘Assalamulaikum’, I observed you carefully (Kamariah) but you did not respond to the greeting.

“I also find the argument that you were influenced by another in declaring yourself an apostate to be weak. The difference between you and your friend is that you were born and raised as a Muslim and you even graduated in Islamic studies,” he said.

...Islam, he added, was not a religion to be ridiculed...

Well, I've learned a couple of things today:

* When visiting, be polite to everyone, especially "Judges".
* Barack Obama should avoid touring Malaysia. He could end up behind bars.