Court invalidates a conversion to Islam because of lack of consent

by Joseph Masilamany

The Court of Appeal upheld an earlier decision by the High Court. For the judges, the case is procedural, not about personal faith. The woman was never Muslim since the change in religion results from a unilateral act by her mother when she was a child without the consent of her Hindu father.

Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews) – A Malaysian woman unilaterally converted to Islam as a child by her mother was never legally a Muslim, the Court of Appeal ruled unanimously on Friday, affirming a High Court decision that declared her religious status invalid from the outset and upheld her original Hindu religion.

The three-judge panel, led by Justice Azimah Omar, upheld the 2023 ruling that found the conversion unlawful because it lacked the consent of both parents, as required under state Islamic law.

“There was no appealable error by the High Court that warranted intervention,” Azimah said in her judgment.

The woman, now 28, was converted at the age of seven when her mother registered her as a Muslim without the consent of her Hindu father.

The judges agreed this breached Section 117(b) of the Selangor Islamic Religious Enactment 2003, which mandates that both parents must consent to a minor’s religious conversion.

“Neither the mother nor the woman had the capacity to do the conversion,” Azimah said. Justices Noorin Badaruddin and Firuz Jaffril also sat on the bench.

The Selangor Islamic Religious Council (MAIS) argued the case should be handled by the shariah court as a matter of renunciation. But the Court of Appeal rejected that view, stating the case was about procedural legality, not the woman’s personal faith.

“This had nothing to do with her measure of faith,” Azimah said. “A non-Muslim does not require a declaration from the shariah court that he or she is non-Muslim.”

The High Court had previously granted the woman’s application, declaring she had always been Hindu and that her conversion to Islam by her mother was “void ab initio” — invalid from the beginning.

Azimah added that the woman should not be required to prove her religious status in a religious court, emphasising that the civil courts have jurisdiction in determining the validity of unlawful unilateral conversions.

The woman’s legal team, Rajesh Nagarajan and Nur Azyan Azimi, filed the originating summons in the Klang High Court last year. The Selangor council’s lawyers, Ahmad Kamal Abu Bakar and Arik Zakri Abdul Kadir, applied to strike out the case on jurisdictional grounds.

According to court documents, the woman was born Hindu to two Hindu parents who married in 1982. The couple separated in 1999, and the woman and her two sisters were placed in their mother’s custody. Their current religious status is unclear.

In 2004, the mother registered as a Muslim in order to marry a Muslim man and converted the then-seven-year-old daughter through the Islamic council’s branch in Klang.

Nearly two decades later, the woman challenged the conversion in civil court, asserting her constitutional right to freedom of religion and family lineage.

The Court of Appeal’s decision marks another significant ruling in Malaysia’s ongoing debate over religious conversions involving minors and interfaith custody disputes.