KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 28 — The Court of Appeal has today affirmed a High Court’s decision that denied a Malaysian woman’s leave for judicial review of the Shariah Court decision over her apostasy bid to leave Islam and embrace Confucianism and Buddhism.

Court of Appeal judge Datuk Hajjah Azizah Nawawi said the appellate court found that the High Court was not wrong in dismissing the appellant’s leave as the matter of renunciation of Islam was clearly a matter of the Shariah Court’s jurisdiction.

“Decisions by the Shariah High Court are not amenable to judicial reviews under Order 53 of the Rules of Court, this is because both the Shariah and civil courts form two separate legal systems.

“The appeal is dismissed and the High Court’s decision is affirmed. We make no order to cost,” Azizah who sat alongside judges Datuk See Mee Chun and Datuk Azizul Azmi Adnan in their unanimous judgment that was delivered through the video-conferencing platform Zoom.

Lawyer Fahri Azzat appeared for the appellant.

In March 2022, the woman applied for judicial review in the civil High Court, naming the four respondents as the Shariah Court of Appeal, the Shariah High Court, the Federal Territories Islamic Religious Council (MAIWP) and the government of Malaysia.

The woman “A” is seeking at least 12 court orders as part of her lawsuit, including declarations that the Shariah courts do not have the jurisdiction or power to declare that a person is no longer a Muslim.

What happened in her case

“A’s” father had converted to Islam in order to marry her mother, and “A’s” religious status is Muslim as she was born when both parents were Muslims.

She was raised by her Muslim mother after the couple divorced, but “A” had never practised Islam as her parents did not practise it and her mother did not force Islam on her.

“A” did not have a chance to legally decide her own faith as a child, and later started professing Confucianism and Buddhism as her religion, and in August 2018 filed an application in the Shariah High Court in Kuala Lumpur to seek declarations that she was never a Muslim or alternatively no longer a Muslim or an apostate and an order that she is not required to attend any counselling sessions relating to Islam.

At the Shariah High Court, “A” said she had never recited the Syahadah or the proclamation of faith required to embrace Islam and that did not believe in Islam’s teachings, asserting that she was registered as a Muslim due to the operation of law through her birth to her Muslim parents and not due to her personal belief.

“A” had also asserted that she professed Confucianism and Buddhism as her religion and that she had lived the life of a Buddhist for a long time and regularly attends Buddhist celebrations, adding that she visits Buddhist temples annually for prayers and to prepare for reincarnation in the journey towards achieving nirvana.

Asserting that she routinely consumes pork and alcohol which are forbidden under Islam but not under Buddhism, “A” had also told the Shariah High Court that she sought the declaration to renounce Islam in order to reflect her actual faith and to prevent the image of Islam from being tarnished by her actions because she does not intend to do so by pretending to be a Muslim.

But before hearing the application by “A”, the Shariah High Court in December 2018 ordered her to first attend 12 “akidah” or faith counselling sessions or sessions regarding Islam over a six-month period from January to June 2019.

As “A” did not want to spend more time challenging these pre-trial counselling sessions, she had taken leave from her work abroad to travel to Malaysia to attend 12 sessions in January 2019, while her mother and her friend had also testified in the Shariah High Court about the Buddhist faith of “A”.

The Shariah High Court on July 27, 2020 dismissed “A”‘s bid to be declared no longer a Muslim and ordered her to go through “istitabah” or repentance and Islamic classes and further akidah counselling.

“A” in August 2020 appealed to the Shariah Court of Appeal in Kuala Lumpur, which then on December 8, 2021 rejected her appeal.

She had then filed this lawsuit at the civil High Court and subsequently sought leave for a judicial review over the Shariah Court’s decision in March 2022.

The High Court rejected the aforementioned leave bid in June the same year.