Orang Asli, a woman who belonged to the jakun tribe, was denied recently the right to practice her real faith and profess her spiritual beliefs in Malaysia. Notably, the victim had moved the court to nullify her conversion to Islam as a child but her plea before the Court of Appeal was dismissed by a 3-member panel in a 2:1 verdict.
Reportedly, when she was just 2 years old, the woman was converted to Islam. She was fathered by a Muslim man, who did not marry her mother (belonging to the jakun tribe). On 14th November 1995, her mother had converted to Islam and the victim argued that she did not recite the oath of allegiance to Islam (Kalimah Syahadah) and did not consent to the conversion.
Last years, the indigenous woman’s petition, to be declared a non-Muslim, was turned down by the Kuantan High Court. The Court of Appeals has also dismissed her application. Justice Datuk Azhahari Kamal Ramli, in his majority verdict, claimed that the victim’s conversion was recorded in her mother’s conversion certificate (Islam bersama Ibu).
He said, “The plaintiff (appellant) was at all material time in the mother’s custody. The mother raised her alone”. Kamal further added that her absentee Muslim father must have ‘consented’ to the conversion.
The court did not take into consider that the victim was only 2 years old at the time and could not have consented to her own conversion. The judge said that a Syariah court was the right place to decide her case and he rationalised his verdict by claiming that the case involved the renunciation of Islam.
Comments