AFTER a 10-year struggle, 28-year-old Rieno Glant Oleant George has finally won his legal battle to remove Islam as his religion from his MyKad.
The Kota Kinabalu High Court ruled yesterday in his favour, declaring that he is not a Muslim and ordering the National Registration Department (NRD) to correct the mistake on his identity card.
George discovered the error when he received his MyKad at the age of 12.
Despite being raised in a Christian household by his grandmother in Kampung Buit Hill, Putatan, he was identified as a Muslim in the document – a mistake linked to his parents' conversion to Islam years after his birth.
George's parents, who are from Penampang, were married at St Michael Church in 1995.
For more than a decade, George made numerous attempts to have the error rectified. He was told by the NRD that he needed an order from the shariah court.
George argued that the shariah court had no jurisdiction over him as he was never a Muslim. The constant refusal led him to mount a legal challenge in the civil court.
High Court judge Zaleha Rose Pandin ruled yesterday George was indeed never a Muslim and that the NRD's demand for a shariah court order was unjustified.
She ordered the department to issue George a new MyKad without the word "Islam". – August 17, 2024.
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