KUALA LUMPUR – The Federal Court today ruled that Rosliza Ibrahim was never a Muslim since her birth, although born to a Muslim father and a non-Muslim mother.
The nine-person bench chaired by Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat found that there is no evidence on record to indicate that the woman is a Muslim, since she was raised as a Buddhist, reported Malaysiakini.
Rosliza, 39, was born out of wedlock and has been fighting a five-year-long legal battle.
She has sought three court orders, of which one is to declare that she is illegitimate and the late Yap Ah Mooi is her mother.
Another declaration is for Selangor’s Islamic laws to not apply to her and the shariah courts to have no jurisdiction over her.
Her last declaration is that she is not a person professing the religion of Islam.
The Federal Court granted all the declarations she sought.
The other judges on the panel are Court of Appeal president Tan Sri Rohana Yusuf, and Federal Court judges Datuk Nallini Pathmanathan, Datuk Abdul Rahman Sebli, Datuk Zabariah Mohd Yusof, Datuk Mary Lim Thiam Suan and Datuk Rhodzariah Bujang.
Chief Judge of Malaya Tan Sri Azahar Mohamed and Datuk Seri Hasnah Mohammed Hashim – both on the panel – differed in not granting two of the court orders sought by Rosliza.
The respondents in today’s appeal are the Selangor government and Selangor Islamic Religious Council.
Tengku Maimun was quoted as saying that Rosliza’s appeal “is distinguishable from the case of Lina Joy”, where the latter was born into Islam but wanted to renounce the religion.
On May 30, 2007, the Federal Court ruled that Lina’s Muslim status will remain on her identification card. It also ruled that it is the shariah court’s jurisdiction to hear cases of Muslims wanting to renounce their faith.
In 2017, the Shah Alam High Court disallowed Rosliza’s 2015 originating summons to be declared a non-Muslim, with the Court of Appeal upholding that ruling on April 25 the following year.
At the high court, Rosliza had proof that Islamic religious authorities of the Federal Territories and 11 states (Perlis, Kedah, Perak, Pahang, Penang, Kelantan, Terengganu, Selangor, Melaka, Negri Sembilan and Johor) do not have any record of her mother converting to Islam and her biological parents entering into a Muslim marriage.
Rosliza also provided the court with her mother’s statutory declaration dated October 8, 2008 – stating that Yap was not married to the father when Rosliza was born. – The Vibes, February 5, 2021
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