THE Court of Appeal today denied a Eurasian woman leave to commence legal action to leave Islam and embrace Buddhism, Malaysiakini reported.

A three-member bench, chaired by judge Azizah Nawawi, unanimously ruled against the 33-year-old’s appeal to get leave to initiate judicial review proceedings over her religious status.

Azizah ruled that only the Shariah Court has the exclusive jurisdiction to determine issues of renunciation per article 121(1A) of the Federal Constitution.

She upheld the Kuala Lumpur High Court decision last year in dismissing the woman’s judicial review leave application.

Azizah said the civil court has no power to hear the legal action as the case involved the renunciation of the Islamic faith.

The other judges on the panel were See Mee Chun and Azizul Azmi Adnan.

Azizah said there is a difference between the civil court and shariah court as the Federal Constitution has ensured that both have separate judicial systems in Malaysia.

Lawyer Fahri Azzat represented the woman, while senior federal counsel Ahmad Hanir Hambaly@Arwi appeared for the government. 

The other three respondents are the Federal Territory Shariah Appeal Court, the Federal Territory Shariah High Court, and the Federal Territory Islamic Religious Council.

The woman, who was born to Muslim parents in Johor in 1990, had gone twice to the shariah courts to renounce her faith. However, her requests were denied. 

She then brought the matter to the civil court. 

The woman claimed the Shariah High Court and Court of Appeal refused her bid as they held it would go against “hukum syarak” (Islamic principles) to allow a fellow Muslim to leave the faith.

The woman, whose parents have divorced, claimed her Muslim mother never forced Islam on her and gave her a free rein to determine her own faith.

She claimed her father only converted to Islam in order to marry her mother and that her parents never practised the faith. – August 28, 2023.