How Teoh Cheng Cheng's Secret Conversion And Funeral Raid Are Affecting Her Family

After four days of drama over her religious status, Teoh Cheng Cheng was finally given a Taoist funeral when her remains were cremated at the Batu Gantung Crematorium this evening.

The funeral took place some three hours after the Penang Shariah High Court declared her a non-Muslim. Cheng Cheng's four children, aged between 10 and 17, dressed in white, kneeled before her coffin as a Taoist priest conducted the final rites.

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Her mother Tan Mah Suan, 64, broke down and had to be held by family members. She later told reporters that she is at ease now. "Thank you all for helping us," Tan said. She also thanked all the elected reps who aided her family in getting Cheng Cheng's remains back and giving her a Taoist send off.

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Her Muslim boyfriend Yazman Ayob was also present, wearing a face mask and sunglasses. He stood together with the family’s lawyers Ramkarpal Singh Deo and S. Raveentharan during the ceremony. Yazman, who had been avoiding the media, shook his head when approached. He only said he felt "sorry for them (the family)" and that "it was unfair".

The Penang Syariah High Court has ruled that Teoh Cheng Cheng is not a Muslim. Judge Zaim Mohd Yudim said she was not a Muslim at her time of death on June 7 as there were discrepancies in the date of her application for conversion in 1997.

He also allowed Teoh’s family to claim her body and to perform funeral rites in accordance with their religious beliefs.

He said the date recorded in the Penang Islamic Religious Affairs Department log book, where details of converts were recorded, differed from the dates in the conversion application forms. He also said testimony from witnesses, including Teoh's boyfriend and daughter, showed the deceased performed her prayers according to Buddhist rites.

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He noted the daughter had told the court she was brought up as a Buddhist by the deceased adding that pictures of the residence tendered as evidence showed altars outside and inside the unit. "The court finds that Teoh Cheng Cheng or Nora Teoh Abdullah is not a Muslim at the time of her death," he said in his ruling and ordered the body be returned to the family for the last rites.

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Penang religious exco Datuk Abdul Malik Abul Kassim today apologised for the manner in which the remains of a "Muslim convert" was taken from her family by state religious department officers on the day of her funeral.

"On behalf of JHEAIPP, we apologise to the family over the action taken by the department, which was deemed insensitive to the customs and feelings of her family, especially during such a difficult time. "We should had been more considerate of their feelings, namely Teoh's mother, Tan Mah Suan," he said after a state exco meeting in Komtar.

The teenage daughter of a Chinese woman, whose body was snatched by the state religious affairs department two days ago, has filed an application at the Penang Shariah High Court to challenge her mother's Muslim status.

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Medelyn Teoh, who filed the application through Syarie lawyer Wan Faridulhadi Mohd Yusoff yesterday, claimed that her mother, Teoh Cheng Cheng, had never performed the sya'adah (proclamation of the Muslim faith) and therefore, never embraced Islam. She also did not receive the supposed religion conversion certificate from the department.

It was initially said that the family had accepted that she would be given a Muslim burial when they consented to let the Penang Islamic Religious Department (Jaipp) take away her body yesterday. Today, however, the family said they wanted her body back to proceed with a Taoist funeral for her and sought help from the state government.

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Jaipp should have claimed Teoh’s body on Saturday instead of waiting for the final day of the wake, she said. “We spent close to RM20,000 on the wake and funeral arrangements and we also bought a niche for her ashes to rest so it is really uncalled for them to come and take her away in such a manner and even to insult us by telling us the Muslim burial will cost us nothing,” Teoh’s mother Tan Mah Suan said.

The Penang state government has offered legal assistance to the late Teoh Cheng Cheng’s family in the dispute over her religious status and how her funeral rites should be conducted. “The legal team representing her will comprise of Gobind Singh Deo, Ramkarpal Singh Deo and S.Raveentharan and they will prepare the legal documents to be filed in the Penang High Court tomorrow,” Pengkalan Kota state assemblyman Lau Keng Ee added.

The mother of al­­leged Muslim convert Teoh Cheng Cheng, who died at her apartment in Macallum Street here on Saturday, is worried about the religious status of Teoh’s four children. Tan Mah Suan, 64, said Teoh’s children were aged between 17 and 10. “Will the religious department (Penang Islamic Religious Affairs Department or Jaipp) take them away as well?

Meanwhile, the deceased's cousin Teoh Chew Choo said it is also the wish of Cheng Cheng's boyfriend, who is a Muslim, that she be allowed a Taoist funeral. "It was his decision. We need to respect her boyfriend's decision too," he told The Malaysian Insider over the phone.

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Even before the dust has settled on Islamic authorities stopping a Hindu wedding in Selangor, the Penang Islamic Religious Department (Jaip) intervened in the Chinese funeral of a 38-year-old waitress today, after it was claimed she converted to Islam 17 years ago.

Her body was kept to the Penang Hospital mortuary pending further developments.

Ch’ng said Teoh died last Friday and the family had organised the Taoist rites then and planned to cremate her today, but the state Islamic religious department filed a police report earlier today to state the 38-year-old should be buried as a Muslim.

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Ch'ng said the police stopped the funeral ceremony and it was fortunate that the Jaip officer arrived later to settle the matter amicably.

Officers from the state Islamic religious department then turned up and informed the family that the woman who was to be cremated was actually Muslim and should be buried according to Islamic funeral practices.

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“They told her mother Tan Mah Suan that her daughter was a Muslim under the name Nora Teoh Abdullah,” said Ch’ng Chin Keat, personal assistant to Pengkalan Kota state assemblyman Lau Keng Ee.

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Teoh, 38, a waitress who reportedly committed suicide on Saturday after a quarrel with her partner, has three children aged 10 to 17.

He said the Islamic religious department revealed Teoh had secretly converted to Islam when she was 20 without telling her family members because her boyfriend then was a Muslim.

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The family was shown documents pertaining to Teoh’s conversion Islam, noted Ch'ng.

“The family was confused and shocked in the beginning because they didn’t know she had converted,” he told The Malay Mail Online.

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Ch'ng said the family was unhappy at not being able to carry out Teoh's funeral rites, and they were also upset they did not know about her conversion to Islam.

"She did not tell her family about her conversion. She has applied for a new identity card but did not get it yet. The old IC is still with her Chinese name," Ch'ng said when contacted.

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After almost two hours of discussions, Teoh’s family finally accepted that she had converted to Islam and allowed the religious affairs department officers to take her body.

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The department officers took the coffin, covered in a Taoist customs coffin cover, away in the department’s van at about 4pm.

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"After discussions with the Jaip officer, the family accepted the situation, and allowed the body to be taken to the mortuary," Ch'ng said.

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Teoh’s body was taken to the Penang Hospital mortuary first for Muslim rites to be performed before burial. “She will be buried today at a Muslim cemetery as per Muslim rites and her family is allowed to attend all the procedures and rites,” he said.

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On whether the family would pursue legal action to claim the body back, Ch'ng said this may not happen as "they want her to be in peace".

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When contacted, state executive councillor for Islamic religious affairs Datuk Abdul Malik Abul Kassim said the department had confirmed Teoh’s conversion before taking action.

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The state executive councillor in charge of Islamic affairs, Abdul Malik Kassim, said the matter with Teoh’s family, leading to the removal of the body, was "settled amicably".

Malik denied that the body was "seized" by the Jaip officers.
"If the family wants to take the matter to court, or settle it legally, they are at liberty to do so. It depends on the family," he told Malaysiakini.

The family of Teoh Cheng Cheng, whose body was seized by Penang Islamic Affairs Department (Jaipp) yesterday, wants to take legal action. It is learnt that Teoh's mother, Tan Mah Suan, and her two sons were in Komtar today to seek legal advice from state executive councillor and Dato Keramat assemblyman Jagdeep Singh.

The family is unhappy with the manner in which Jaipp seized Teoh's body, which was laid in a coffin, and brought it back to the hospital mortuary. It is learnt that the family had spent about RM20,000 for Teoh's funeral.