Civil court bins man's bid to leave Islam after marriage crumbled

The civil court has denied a man’s legal action to renounce Islam after his marriage to a Muslim woman crumbled eight years ago.

The Kuala Lumpur High Court this afternoon denied the judicial review by the 45-year-old man, who left Christianity and embraced Islam on July 26, 2010, to marry the woman later that same year.

However, his five-year marriage to the woman disintegrated and ended in divorce on Sept 17, 2015, and he then went to the Syariah Court to leave the faith.

When the Federal Territories' Syariah High Court and Appeal Court denied his bids to renounce Islam and ordered him to undergo more Islamic faith counselling, the man filed the judicial review with the civil court in February last year.

During online proceedings today, High Court judge Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh ruled that the civil court has no jurisdiction on the issue of renunciation.

He said this is because Article 121(1A) of the Federal Constitution clearly demarcated the matter as one that falls squarely within the Syariah Court’s purview.

Wan Ahmad Farid said this situation is so even if the Syariah Court decision is tainted by error.

The judge said that the Syariah Court did not give guidance to the man on what it meant by the man failing to provide sufficient evidence to prove that he has full faith in only the concept of the Holy Trinity of Christianity.

Wan Ahmad Farid noted that the religious court said the man’s evidence was not backed by any witness, and that it did not go much further than that.

“I have reservations on this line of argument. I cannot comprehend what the Syariah Appeal Court meant when it ruled on insufficient testimony, in order to give guidance (to the man) on the nature of sufficient evidence required by the Syariah Court.

“Be that as it may, as said by the Court of Appeal (in a decision this year over a woman’s bid to leave Islam), this (High) Court has no power over the Syariah Court on renunciation,” Wan Ahmad Farid said before dismissing the man’s judicial review.

Counsel Fahri Azzat represented the man.

Senior federal counsel Ahmad Hanir Hambaly acted for the four respondents targeted by the judicial review, namely the Federal Territories Syariah Appeals Court, the Federal Territories Syariah High Court, the Federal Territories Islamic Religious Council (MAIWP), and the federal government.

Faith counselling sessions

According to The Vibes report last year, the man sought a declaration that he is no longer a Muslim, or alternatively that he was never one.

Through his supporting affidavit, he became a Muslim in July 2010 to marry the woman, and he was then registered as a muallaf (Muslim convert).

However, he claimed that his then-wife never encouraged him to practise Islam, adding that he lacked faith when he recited the Kalimah Shahadah (Islamic declaration of faith).

“I had converted to Islam solely to marry my former wife so that we could live together as husband and wife,” he said in his affidavit.

He contended that he still has faith in Christianity, and he expressed interest in Buddhism over the past several years.

According to the affidavit, he had earlier in 2016 filed an application with the Syariah High Court to seek a declaration that he is not a Muslim.

The religious court had previously ordered him to attend 12 pre-trial faith counselling sessions that took place between June and August 2019 - as a prerequisite before it decided on his renunciation bid.

The Syariah High Court, however, denied his application and ordered him to undergo further faith counselling sessions. This was further upheld by the Syariah Appeal Court.

He further claimed, among others, that the religious court’s ruling was based on reasoning that it is not allowed under Islamic principles to declare a person as having converted out of Islam, as well as that his belief in Islam could be resurrected.

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