Converted After A Decade: Sabah Lawmaker Paid For Mosques And Imams For Years Before Finally Becoming Muslim Himself

A Sabah assemblyman who spent years personally funding mosques, imams and Islamic burial services while still practising a pagan faith has now converted to Islam himself, a decade after his wife first asked him to.

Cikgu Julkipli Sukur/Ruddy Awah

In Brief

Datuk Ruddy Awah converted to Islam after over a decade of consideration, driven by personal conviction rather than political or family pressure.
Before converting, Ruddy donated RM1,000 annually to 1,001 mosques, surau and churches, and personally funded nine Quran teachers monthly.
His wife and five children had already converted, with his wife encouraging him to do so for 10 years prior.

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A Sabah state assemblyman converted to Islam after more than 10 years of considering the decision, following a period during which he financially supported mosques, surau and churches while still practising an indigenous pagan belief system.

Datuk Ruddy Awah, 58, the assemblyman for Pitas and Sabah’s assistant minister for works and utilities, said the conversion was based on personal conviction and was not connected to political, family or financial factors.

Ruddy, a member of Parti Gagasan Rakyat Sabah (Gagasan Rakyat), said he had contributed RM1,000 annually to 1,001 churches, surau and mosques in his constituency for years before his conversion.

He said he had also personally paid nine Fardu Ain (compulsory religious knowledge) teachers RM1,000 a month each from his own funds to teach Quran classes in Pitas, and had provided free hearse vans and burial shrouds for use by both Muslim and Christian communities in the area.

Family Ties and a Decade-Long Journey

His wife and five of his six children had converted to Islam earlier, and his wife had asked him to convert for 10 years before he made his decision.

A new surau built on his property was completed two months before his conversion.

Ruddy said the decision followed years of attending Islamic religious talks and studying the religion, and that he felt the time had come to make the change.

His relationship with his extended family and the Christian community in Pitas remained unaffected; he had explained his decision to them beforehand.

While his conversion has garnered significant attention, he follows a historical precedent of prominent Sabahan political figures who converted to Islam decades earlier.

Historically, the most notable and first high-profile Sabah lawmaker to convert to Islam was Tun Fuad Stephens (born Donald Stephens), Sabah’s first Chief Minister and later as its Head of State (Yang di-Pertua Negeri).

This report is based partly on an earlier publication by Berita Harian.

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