PUTRAJAYA, Oct 3 — The Court of Appeal’s three-member panel, in a split decision, has dismissed an appeal by an Orang Asli woman to nullify her conversion to Islam.

Justices Datuk Che Mohd Ruzima Ghazali and Datuk Azhahari Kamal Ramli formed the majority decision while Datuk Wong Kian Kheong dissented.

The dissenting judgment was not read in court today, but Justice Wong said he would provide his grounds of judgment to the parties involved later.

In delivering the majority’s ruling online today, Justice Azhahari said the Syariah Court is the proper forum to determine the 31-year-old woman’s religious status given that this is a case of renunciation.

He said the appellant’s conversion was recorded in her mother’s conversion certificate as "Islam bersama Ibu” (professing Islam along with her mother).

"The plaintiff (appellant) was at all material time in the custody of the mother. The mother raised her alone,” he said.

Justice Azhahari said a reasonable inference can be made that the mother decided to also convert her child (appellant) when she embraced Islam in 1995.

He said the court also noted that the appellant’s biological father, who did not marry her mother, is a Muslim.

The court is of the view that the woman’s father being a Muslim, is deemed to have consented to the conversion, added the judge.

The appellant, who belongs to the Jakun tribe, had appealed against the High Court’s decision, made on February 22 last year, which dismissed her application for a declaration that she is not a Muslim.

She claimed that she was converted by her mother when she was only two years old.

She also sought a declaration that she has the right to practice and profess her own spiritual and cultural belief as an Aboriginal person.

In her originating summons filed against the Pahang Islamic Religious and Malay Customs Council and the Pahang government, the woman claimed that she never embraced Islam and did not recite the "Kalimah Syahadah” as she was only two years old on November 14, 1995.

Lawyers A.Surendra Ananth and New Sin Yew represented the woman, while state legal adviser Datuk Saiful Edris Zainuddin appeared for the Pahang government.

Lawyer Mohd Najid Hussain represented the Pahang Islamic Religious and Malay Customs Council. — Bernama