MALAYSIA: Court of appeal stops Muslim man’s return to Christian faith
Shariah courts have the exclusive jurisdiction to hear cases of apostasy and civil courts cannot interfere
By Joseph Masilamany
UCA News (16.05.2025) – A 47-year-old Malaysian man’s attempt to return to Christianity 14 years after he converted to Islam was dismissed by the country’s Court of Appeal on May 16, asserting the Islamic Shariah court’s exclusive jurisdiction over such matters.
A three-judge bench of the Appeal Court said the appeal of the man, whose name is not revealed, “had no merit.”
“This is not a case of someone who was never a Muslim but a renunciation [of Islam]. We affirm that shariah courts have the exclusive jurisdiction to hear these cases and civil courts cannot interfere,” the court said.
The court also noted that a Shariah court had dismissed his application to renounce Islam because of “insufficient” evidence.
“He can apply again before the shariah court,” the court said, and added that there had been cases of successful renunciations.
The man converted to Islam in 2010 to help him marry a Muslim woman, but divorced her in 2015 and applied in the Shariah court to officially renounce Islam and go back to his original Christian faith.
But the court ordered him to undergo religious counselling.
When a lower Sharia court and the Shariah appellate court rejected his applications for renunciation of Islam, he turned to the civil courts.
He wanted the civil court to assert his right to profess the religion of his choice and nullify the Shariah court’s decision.
In 2023, the High Court ruled that it had no authority to interfere, bringing the case to the Appeal Court.
Malaysian Church leaders refrain from commenting on these issues as they are considered sensitive in the multi-religious Malaysian context.
A pattern of precedents
Observers say the case shows that religious freedom, expressed under Article 11 of the Federal Constitution, is tilted against individuals who wish to renounce Islam.
One widely reported case was of Lina Joy, a Christian woman, who converted to Islam in the 1990s to marry a Muslim man. She wanted to remove “Islam” from her identity card when the relationship ended.
In 2007, the Federal Court ruled in a 2-1 decision that only the Shariah court could validate her apostasy — a decision that left her in legal and religious limbo.
The other case was that of Revathi Masoosai, born to Muslim converts but raised as a Hindu. In 2007, she was detained by Islamic authorities in Malacca for insisting on her Hindu identity.
Her baby daughter was taken from her and placed with Muslim relatives during her detention, drawing national and international criticism.
However, not all such cases end in deadlock.
In 2021, Rosliza Ibrahim, a woman from Selangor, won her case at the Federal Court. Her legal team successfully argued that she was never a Muslim, as there was no proof that her mother had converted to Islam.
The court ruled that the Shariah system had no jurisdiction over her.
Malaysia’s legal framework is based on a unique dual system, with civil courts operating alongside Shariah courts that handle personal and religious matters concerning Muslims.
Photo: The Malaysian Court of Appeal, which on May 16 reaffirmed that shariah courts have exclusive jurisdiction in cases involving the renunciation of Islam, and the civil courts cannot interfere. (Photo: freemalaysiatoday.com)
