M’sian Woman’s Request to Leave Islam for Confucianism Was Rejected By Court Through Email

By Aqasha Nalani  •  16 Jun 2022 in News

Thirsty for JUICE content? Quench your cravings on our Instagram, TikTok and WhatsApp

The Syariah High Court rejected a woman’s request to leave Islam through email.

The birth certificate of a 32-year-old lady indicates that she is Muslim since her father converted to Islam in order to marry her mother.

The woman’s mother took care of her when her parents split up, but the mother didn’t try to persuade her to learn Islam, thus she never did.

Since she was denied the right to choose her religion as a kid, she filed for a change at the Shariah High Court in Kuala Lumpur in August 2018 claiming she was never a Muslim and no longer identifies as one.

The woman also claimed to be a devout Buddhist and Confucianist who had been a Buddhist for a long time and often attended Buddhist celebrations.

She also mentioned that she makes yearly pilgrimages to Buddhist temples for prayers and preparation for rebirth on the path to paradise.

The Syariah High Court, before hearing the lady’s case in December 2018, did, however, mandate that she attends 12 akidah (faith) counselling sessions between January and June of 2019.

Her mother and a friend testified at the Shariah High Court on the woman’s Buddhist beliefs, and she even took time off work to fly to Malaysia to attend 12 therapy sessions in January 2019 because she did not want to spend any more time opposing the court’s mandate.

On July 27, 2020, the Syariah High Court ruled against her request to be declared excommunicated from Islam.

The woman’s court representative, Mohammad Sallehuddin Md Ali, said that High Court judge Datuk Ahmad Kamal Md Shahid had denied the woman’s request for judicial review.

The lady, however, remained unyielding in her pursuit of justice and promptly filed an appeal.

She is also seeking a declaration from the civil High Court that the rulings of the Shariah High Court in July 2020 and the Syariah Court of Appeal in December 2021, which both denied her request to be officially recognised as no longer a Muslim, are unlawful and invalid.

She also immediately requested an interim stay against the Shariah court decisions, and compensation for the illegal akidah sessions she was forced to attend.

It is widely known by Malaysians that a Muslim could not convert to another religion by law but exceptions have been made in several circumstances in the past, with a number of cases receiving extensive coverage by the media.