PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal has, in a majority ruling, dismissed an Orang Asli woman’s appeal challenging her religious status as a Muslim.
Justices Che Ruzima Ghazali and Azhahari Kamal Ramli held that the 31-year-old woman’s appeal has no merit.
Justice Wong Kian Kheong dissented but did not provide reasons for ruling in the woman’s favour.
Delivering the majority decision, Azhahari said the court was of the view that the shariah court was the proper forum to determine her religious status, as the case involved a renunciation of faith.
He said the woman’s religious status was stated in her mother’s conversion certificate as being Muslim together with her mother.
“She was raised by her mother alone, and there was no dispute that her mother had full custody of the daughter.
A reasonable inference can be made that the mother decided to convert her when the mother embraced Islam (in 1995), he said.
The court also noted that the woman’s biological father – who did not marry her mother – was also a Muslim.
We take the view that the father was deemed to have consented (to her conversion), Azhahari said.
The court made no order as to costs.
The woman, who belongs to the Jakun tribe, had claimed she was converted by her mother when she was only two years old.
She said she did not recite the declaration of faith, known as the kalimah syahadah.
Last year, the High Court dismissed her lawsuit seeking to challenge her conversion.
The woman was represented by Surendra Ananth and New Sin Yew, while state legal adviser Saiful Edris Zainuddin appeared for the Pahang government.
Najid Hussain represented the Pahang Islamic Religious and Malay Customs Council.
