Religion and Marriage in Canada?

[Perseveranc3]

Sorry I don't really know if this is the right place to post this but this is a very serious question and I hope you guys would help me with it.

I'm a canadian citizen(born in canada) living in malaysia(also have malaysian citizenship). I'm legally a Muslim(I don't practice the religion at all though) and my girlfriend is a non-muslim. I don't want to force her to convert to Islam when we get married and yet it is illegal for a muslim to marry a non-muslim here in malaysia. I have plans of migrating back to Canada in the future and would like to know whether muslims have the freedom to marry non -muslims there? And also is it even remotely possible for me to legally convert out of Islam there and move to malaysia again as a non-muslim? And let's say muslim-non-muslim marriage was possible and i married her, could i get the freedom to choose not registering our child as a muslim when we have kids? Cause I've been told children automatically follows the religion of the father. Thank you so much to anyone who helps.

 

[newtone]

No, there is no such rules about following any religion. You can even have kids without marriage and there will be no problems. You dont even have to narry either. You could live together for the rest of your life and Canada will consider that as good as marriage aka common law

 

[Perseveranc3]

Thanks for replying. I take it you mean that religion does not affect marriage at all and we could legally register our marriage in canada no matter what religions we have correct? And also, my child could definitely be born an atheist if I choose so(or is it that they don't even have a specific column that states a child's religion?). Could I use the Canadian marriage certificate for her to be recognized as my spouse in Malaysia?(since i couldn't marry her in m'sia) And also if my child is born an atheist, will he be forced to become a muslim whenever we choose to move back to m'sia or any other muslim country again due to his father being a muslim? Sorry if i'm asking a lot, this religion thing has always been a major worry for me and my girlfriend

 

[Leon]

Religion in Canada isn't very important and as far as I know, nobody will register your child into a religious organization except yourself or your child when he or she grows up. In fact I can't even recall having been asked my religion except for property tax in AB where they use a portion of the tax for schools and they want to know your religion to determine to which schools they should funnel your tax portion.

However, I can not speak for what happens in Malaysia when you show up with a marriage certificate from another country or how they will register your children. You will have to ask the authorities there about that.

 

[mrbeachman]

Kudos to you Perseveranc3