Orang Asli woman’s mum never agreed to daughter’s conversion, court told

Lawyer A Surendra Ananth says the woman's mother only converted to Islam to marry his client's biological father, who is a Muslim.

The Orang Asli woman is appealing to the Federal Court to challenge her conversion to Islam, which she contends was done by her mother when she was two years old.

PUTRAJAYA:

 The Federal Court today heard that the biological mother of an Orang Asli woman had never consented for her daughter to be registered as a Muslim by the Pahang government.

Appearing for the 32-year-old woman from the Jakun tribe in Kuantan, lawyer A Surendra Ananth said the state religious authorities had recorded his client’s status as “professing Islam with mother” sometime in 1998.

During the material time, the woman’s mother had gone to the religious department to replace her 1995 conversion certificate which had gone missing.

“The woman’s mother said it was purely her own decision to convert to Islam (for the purpose of marrying the woman’s Muslim biological father).

“The woman’s mother had never decided for her daughter to follow in her footsteps,” Surendra said, adding that the mother had allowed her daughter to live in accordance with tribal practices in the past.

He said the mother did not object to the religious department recording her daughter as a Muslim as she thought her daughter would be given an identity card to attend school later.

The daughter is challenging her religious status as a Muslim.

She claimed she was converted by her mother when she was only two years old and that she had never recited the declaration of faith, known as the “kalimah syahadah”.

In 2023, the High Court dismissed her lawsuit seeking to challenge her conversion, saying the civil courts did not have jurisdiction to decide on her suit and that the shariah court was the appropriate forum instead.

The Court of Appeal upheld the ruling in a majority decision last year, citing her conversion certificate which stated that she became a Muslim with her mother.

She subsequently appealed to the apex court.

Surendra said the appeals court had erred in interpreting Section 103 of the Pahang Islamic Family Law Enactment by “including” illegitimate children like her to be considered as a Muslim.

He said the enactment required a converting parent to obtain custody from a civil court before they could assume full custody of the child, and subsequently make decisions to convert the child.

Surendra said “the majority ‘rewrote’ the state law by dispensing the need for custody order”.

It’s a renunciation case, argues state govt

In response, Pahang government legal adviser Saifuddin Hashim Musaimi insisted that the woman’s case was a renunciation of Islam and that she should file an application at the shariah court.

He pointed out that the woman had in the past made attempts to remove the word Islam from her identity card, without going through the shariah court.

On the woman’s contention that the lower court “wrongly” interpreted the Pahang enactment, Saifuddin said the provision did not apply to her as an illegitimate child.

Although there was never a custody order, he said the woman was subjected to her mother or maternal relatives in deciding her religion.

Court of Appeal president Abu Bakar Jais, who chaired the Federal Court panel, then asked why the state government introduced Section 103 back then.

Both Surendra and Saifuddin informed the court that they were unable to locate the Pahang assembly’s Hansard regarding the Section 103 amendment.

Abu Bakar said the Hansard was an important document for the court’s consideration.

“It will be unfair to ask us to make a decision in an important case without sufficient material,” he added.

The other judges who sat with him were Chief Judge of Malaya Hashim Hamzah and Justice Lee Swee Seng.

The court set Jan 22 for case management. - FMT