ONLY IN 'BOLEHLAND' MALAYSIA! A wedding WITHOUT the bride

I couldn't help thinking about a movie scene:

In a wedding ceremony, the pastor announces, "Now the two of you can be united in this sacred moment, but if there is anyone who has any reason to believe this matrimonial tie must not be established, please speak up now..."

Right then the bride's ex-lover or her true love suddenly shows up and yells, "I object!" And then rushes forward to snatch the bride away, leaving the pastor, friends and guests in total loss.

Old trick! I have seen at least ten movies like this.

If there is any chance I would like to ask the screenplay writer why the ex-lover or true love doesn't show up any earlier but in the very nick of time.

But in real life something quite similar took place in the state of Selangor merely days ago.

While an Indian couple was undergoing their matrimonial ceremony in a Hindu temple, suddenly a group of people claiming to be JAIS (Selangor Islamic Affairs Department) officials stormed in, taking away the bride halfway through the rituals.

I couldn't agree more that the real-life plot was far more exciting than the movie plot, and of course, far more dangerous as well.

How if the bride refused to leave, the bridegroom refused to give in, and the guests refused to compromise? The romantic episode could have developed into an action-packed drama.

JAIS claimed the bride was a Muslim and therefore had to be taken away. The thing is: the timing and venue of the incident were outright peculiar. It could have taken place much earlier but why only when the couple was halfway through the rituals inside the temple?

Was that seen as a need to bring on a greater climax to the whole thing?

Must be! As the media would give thorough reports and politicians would come into play. But the incident could potentially become a highly sensitive issue that would impact our inter-faith relations.

Perhaps JAIS intended to tell the world once again it was the real authority in religious matters?

But Malaysia is no Afghanistan, Sudan, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia or Iran. We are a plural society where people of different faiths live together in peace and harmony. We do not need nor allow any religious cops here.

Mahathir dismissed JAIS' action as not in compliance with Islamic teachings. Even more open-minded cleric Dr Mohd Asri has said JAIS' action was akin to talibanization while Selangor menteri besar accused JAIS of getting the state government embarrassed.

This was not the first time JAIS has run into something like this. Two years ago, JAIS raided a church dinner in Petaling Jaya while several months ago, it raided the Bible Society of Malaysia's office in Damansara, confiscating a total of 351 copies of the Malay version of the Bible.

This time, it was the bride that they took with them.

The bride, Zarena, has been a Hindu devotee since young but her estranged father registered her as Muslim outside of her knowledge when she was young.

Such a blunder resulting from the action of the father against the family traditions and the bride's own will could have been rectified with relative ease. However, having spent so many years and so much effort, the poor girl still couldn't get the mistake reversed.

Under any normal system, there should have been ways for the poor young lady to revert to her own preferred identity and there should have been some effective mechanisms to check the power of JAIS.

Amending the laws and plugging the legal loopholes might be able to avert such tragic consequences befalling Zarena and the like, while effort must be made to check the power of JAIS and prevent these religious cops from rampaging our society.

In the long run, simply put, we need more tolerance in religion. -Mynsinchew