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Unilaterally-converted Selangor woman fails final court bid to be declared not Muslim



A Selangor-born woman today failed in her final attempt at the Federal Court to seek a court declaration that she is not a Muslim. — Picture by Yusof Mat Isa

Monday, 06 Jan 2025 11:35 AM MYT


PUTRAJAYA, Jan 6 — A Selangor-born woman today failed in her final attempt at the Federal Court to seek a court declaration that she is not a Muslim.

Federal Court judge Datuk Zabariah Mohd Yusof, who chaired a three-judge panel, dismissed the 38-year-old woman’s application to review an earlier Federal Court decision.


“We unanimously dismiss the application in both cases with no order as to costs,” she said after the Federal Court heard the case today.

The other two judges on the panel are Datuk Rhodzariah Bujang and Datuk Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera.


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 herself and D, then four years’ old, to Islam without the father’s knowledge or consent.

Previously, D told the courts she was born a Hindu and had only professed and practised the Hindu religion.

D also said she was never a Muslim, had never converted to Islam and had never uttered the “kalimah syahadah” (the declaration of faith required to convert to Islam).

D has spent 11 years — since age 27 — going to the courts to seek a declaration that she is not a Muslim, as she just wanted to be officially recorded as 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.

D in December 2021 won a High Court order that declared her as “not a person professing the religion of Islam”.

But the Court of Appeal in a 2-1 decision in January 2023 restored D’s official religious status as a Muslim, and the Federal Court in a 2-1 decision in May 2024 agreed that D should remain officially known as a Muslim.

D had wanted the Federal Court’s panel today to review the decision made by the two judges in May 2024 against her, but the Federal Court’s rejection of her review application means that her official religious status remains as a Muslim now.

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