Woman jailed for 'worshipping tea pot'

[bijou]

A sharia court in Malaysia jailed a woman for joining a "tea-pot worshipping" cult.
Kamariah Ali, a 57 year old former teacher, was arrested in 2005 when the government of the Muslim majority country demolished the two storey high sacred tea pot and other infrastructure of the "heretical" Sky Kingdom cult.
For the eccentric sect, which emphasised ecumenical dialogue between religions, the tea pot symbolized the purity of water and "love pouring from heaven".

But in Malaysia, despite constitutional guarantees of freedom of worship, born Muslims such as Mrs Ali are forbidden from converting to other religions.

Passing sentence, the Sharia judge Mohammed Abdullah said: "The court is not convinced that the accused has repented and is willing to abandon any teachings contrary to Islam. I pray God will open the doors of your heart, Kamariah."

Mrs Ali has already been jailed once for apostasy, for 20 months in 1992.

advertisement"This has to stop. They can’t be sending her again and again to prison for this," her lawyer, Sa'adiah Din, told reporters.

"She informed the court that she is not a Muslim. She doesn't come under Sharia court anymore."

The case underlines the dissatisfaction of non-Muslim Malaysians, who make up just under half the population, ahead of the country’s most contentious election in a generation this Saturday.

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