Unilaterally converted to Islam at four, Selangor-born woman makes one last try to be declared not a Muslim

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 19 — Unilaterally converted at the age of four to Islam, a woman who will turn 38 this year has made her final attempt to seek a court declaration that she is not a Muslim.

This woman, identified only as D to protect her privacy, was born in Selangor to a Hindu father and a Buddhist mother. The mother later converted D without telling the father, and D has said the father never gave his consent for her religious conversion.

D’s lawyer Surendra Ananth told Malay Mail that his client had on August 16 filed an application at the Federal Court to ask the country’s highest court to review its previous decision against her.

Previously, D had in December 2021 won a High Court order which declared her as “not a person professing the religion of Islam”, but the Court of Appeal in a 2-1 decision in January last year restored her official religious status as a Muslim.

On May 3 this year, the Federal Court in a 2-1 decision agreed with the court decision that had reinstated D’s official identity as a Muslim, and dismissed her appeal.

D now wants a new panel of judges at the Federal Court to review the decision made by two of the judges in the May 2024 panel which ruled against her.

She is applying for the Federal Court to set aside the majority decision in May which dismissed her appeal, and also wants the new panel at the Federal Court to immediately rehear her appeal against the Court of Appeal’s decision which had restored her Muslim status.

Based on her application, here are the reasons why she is asking for the Federal Court to review the majority decision against her. She is arguing that the Federal Court’s majority decision:

• has caused a serious miscarriage of justice
• is per incuriam (made while ignoring a relevant law or a binding court decision)
• was made beyond jurisdiction and had violated the rules of natural justice

Surendra said the Federal Court has fixed September 18 for case management of his client’s application for review.

D has spent almost 11 years now or since the age of 27 in going to the courts to seek a declaration that she is not a Muslim.

This all started from when she tried at the age of 25 in 2011 to have the label “Islam” removed from her identity card to reflect her religious identity to be a non-Muslim.

But the National Registration Department rejected her application for the removal of the “Islam” label, and the Shariah courts also rejected her bid to be confirmed as a non-Muslim, which then led to her efforts in the civil courts to be recognised as not a Muslim.

Among other things, D had told the courts that she had been born a Hindu and had only professed and practised the Hindu religion, and also said she had never professed the religion of Islam and had never uttered the kalimah syahadah (the declaration of faith required to convert to Islam).