‘Renunciation of Islam not under apex court ambit’

The Federal Court has no power to review decisions regarding the renunciation of Islam as it falls under the purview of the Syariah Court, a lawyer has argued.

Prominent lawyer Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla said the Syariah Courts have the authority as specified under Article 121(1A) of the Federal Constitution to hear and determine someone’s religious status.

“Civil courts do not have the power to reverse or review the findings of facts made by the Syariah Court, particularly on issues involving Islamic law.

“Our country operates a dual legal system (Syariah and civil) where both systems run parallel to each other.

“These systems are independent and cannot encroach upon one another.”

Haniff said this yesterday in his submission on behalf of the Selangor Islamic Religious Council during an appeal case involving a 36-year-old woman challenging her conversion to Islam.

Counsel Datuk Malik Imtiaz Sarwar represented the woman while the Selangor government was represented by its legal adviser Datuk Salim Soib @ Hamid.

The Court of Appeal had last month overturned a High Court decision on Dec 21, 2021, which nullified the woman’s conversion to Islam by her mother when she was 4 years old.

The woman, born in Selangor to a Hindu father and a Buddhist mother who later converted to Islam, filed an originating summons in the Shah Alam High Court on May 10 last year, seeking a declaration that she is not a Muslim.

She also wanted the National Registration Department to remove the word “Islam” from her identity card.

She claimed that her mother converted her to Islam in 1991 at the Selangor Islamic Religious Department. At the time, her parents were in the midst of a divorce.

After the divorce, her mother married a Muslim man in 1993. Her father died in an accident in 1996.

The woman said despite converting to Islam, she continued to profess the Hindu faith, and that her mother and stepfather allowed her to practise Hinduism.

In 2013, the woman filed an application at the Kuala Lumpur Syariah High Court seeking to renounce Islam.

The application was dismissed in 2017, and she was ordered to attend a series of counselling sessions. The Syariah Appeals Court upheld the ruling.

The woman then filed a suit in the Shah Alam High Court in 2021 and obtained a declaration that she is not a Muslim.