Thursday December 29, 2005
Brother: Accept Moorthy’s conversion to Islam
KUALA LUMPUR: M. Moorthy’s elder brother has advised his widow and family to accept the fact that he was a Muslim and that he had to be buried according to Muslim rites.
Sugumaran @ Mohd Hussin Abdullah, 46, also a Muslim convert, was the only family member among the more than 50 people at his funeral at the Taman Ibu Kota Muslim cemetery in Setapak yesterday.
He poured scented water on Moorthy’s grave after prayers were recited by Surau Al-Muhajirin chief imam Bakri Abdul Rahman.
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LAST RITES: Sugumaran (left) together with Bakri (third from left) and others reciting prayers at Moorthy's burial at Taman Ibu Kota Muslim cemetery in Setapak Wednesday. |
A distressed Sugumaran was comforted by those present, with some giving their contact numbers should he need help.
Moorthy, who was with the Projek Malaysia Everest 1997 expedition, died last Tuesday at age 36.
The former army lance corporal was said to have converted to Islam on Oct 11 last year and adopted the name Mohammad Abdullah.
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M. Moorthy |
In Rawang, Moorthy’s widow, S. Kaliammal, held a symbolic cremation ceremonyfor him at 4pm to “appease his soul”.
At the couple’s apartment in Taman Tun Teja, a small pile of wood was burnt followed by the breaking of coconuts and scattering of flowers.
“My husband was a Hindu. I want his soul to go to heaven. What they have taken was his body. I am now doing something for his soul,” she said.
The family would place the symbolic ashes together with the coconuts and flowers in a river, said her lawyer A. Sivanesan.
Moorthy joined the armed forces in 1988 and was absorbed into the Commando Unit.
He was paralysed from the chest down after injuring his neck while attempting to somersault over a barrier at the Sungai Udang camp in Malacca on Aug 14, 1998.
He went into a coma and was admitted to the KL Hospital's neurology department on Nov 11.
Kaliammal found out about his conversion and filed a civil action to restrain Jawi from claiming the body.
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