MalayMail/Reutes-Aug 4
The High Court in Penang has rejected a Muslim convert’s legal bid to seek official recognition for her return to Christianity after her 2013 divorce to a Muslim man. High Court judge Quay Chew Soon rejected the woman’s application for leave for judicial review on June 26, and wrote his judgment dated July 17, which was released only recently. The woman had sought six orders from the court, including a declaration that she is a person professing Christianity and that state Islamic laws do not apply to her, and an order of prohibition to prevent the respondents from exercising any power vested in them by state Islamic laws against her. She also wants her name and religious status in her Malaysian identity card to be changed when she submits the appropriate forms to the National Registration Department (NRD), to give effect to the other court declarations and orders that she is seeking. For those who filed lawsuits through judicial review applications, they will have to first get the court’s leave or permission for the lawsuit to be heard. According to details in the recently released High Court judgment, the 57-year-old woman was born to Christian parents, was baptized as an infant, was raised as a believing and practising Christian. She was also said to have confirmed her belief in the Christian faith in her teens. Malay Mail is not naming the woman to protect her privacy. The woman said she took the oath to become a Muslim on March 30, 1995 at the Penang Islamic Religious Affairs Department (JHEAIPP) and adopted a Muslim name because it was necessary to enable her to marry a Muslim man and not out of a belief in Islam. The woman’s marriage was registered in early July 1995. She had three children with the Muslim man, and they were raised as Muslims and practised Islam. The couple divorced in January 2013 by mutual consent. In 2014, the woman signed a statutory declaration stating that she has always practised Christianity and that she wishes to continue her life as a Christian. On March 22, 2016, she filed proceedings at the Selangor Shariah High Court to renounce Islam. Read more at: https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2023/08/04/woman-convert-fails-to-get-high-court-leave-in-bid-to-be-declared-christian-after-divorcing-muslim-man/83477
