Religious council appeals declaration woman’s conversion illegal

Last month, the Penang High Court declared the Catholic woman’s conversion to Islam as invalid and ordered the removal of her details from the state’s Muslim converts’ registry.

GEORGE TOWN: Penang’s Islamic religious council and the state converts’ registrar has filed an appeal against the High Court’s decision to declare a Catholic woman’s conversion to Islam illegal.

The matter will go to the Court of Appeal after the religious council filed the appeal via Messrs Azmi and Associates today, while the converts’ registrar filed an appeal via the state legal adviser’s office yesterday.

This was revealed to FMT by the woman’s lawyer, Shamsher Singh Thind.

“Under the law, they have the right (to appeal) when they are unhappy with the decision of the High Court. But I believe the decision by the High Court is accurate given the federal and state laws in this case,” Shamsher said.

The case involves a 21-year-old woman from Keningau, Sabah, who was converted as a minor. Last month, the High Court here declared the conversion as invalid.

The court said the woman’s conversion registered by the converts’ registrar on June 11, 2020, when she was 17, was illegal.

Justice Quay Chew Soon, in his ruling on April 16, issued a certiorari order to cancel her Islamic conversion certificate and all other related documents.

He further directed the removal of her details from the state’s Muslim converts’ registry through a mandamus order, and declared that she remains a follower of the Catholic faith.

The woman converted to Islam in 2020 at the age of 17 to marry her Muslim boyfriend, but he broke off the relationship a few months later.

Her parents, who are farmers in Keningau, had filed an affidavit affirming that she was a practising Catholic and had been baptised at the St Francis Xavier Cathedral in Keningau in 2005. They said they had never consented to their daughter’s conversion to Islam.