Malaysia Woman Scores Rare Legal Win to Quit Islam

Which current day faiths/religions makes it hard to leave?


Malaysia Woman Scores Rare Legal Win to Quit Islam
By REUTERS


Filed at 2:17 a.m. ET


KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - A Malaysian religious court granted a woman's wish
to formally renounce Islam on Thursday, a decision described by her lawyer
as a landmark case that could enable many others to leave the faith.


Islamic courts in the mainly Muslim nation rarely allow Muslims to convert
to other religions. Often, they prescribe counseling or sometimes even fine
them for apostasy.


"It's a landmark case," said lawyer Ahmad Jailani Abdul Ghani, who
represented Siti Fatimah Tan Abdullah, 38, in her two-year court battle to
convert back to Buddhism from Islam.


Siti Fatimah, an ethnic Chinese woman formerly known as Tan Ean Huang, had
converted to Islam in 1998 in order to marry her Muslim lover at the time.
In Malaysia, non-Muslims must convert to Islam before they can legally
marry a Muslim.


But Siti Fatimah later broke up with her husband and in 2006 sought to have
her conversion to Islam annulled, Ahmad Jailani said, adding that she had
never practiced as a Muslim and had only adopted Islam in name to ensure
her marriage was recognized.


The lawyer said the ruling was important because it accepted that Muslims
could renounce Islam on the grounds that they had never really practiced
the faith.


"We brought in two witnesses from her family to say that (because of) the
way she prays and way she lives in her house, she is not a Muslim," Ahmad
Jailani said.


Islam is Malaysia's official religion, but a big minority of around 40
percent of Malaysians profess other faiths such as Buddhism, Hinduism and
Christianity.


Islamic affairs are governed at state level, so Thursday's ruling by the
Penang Sharia High Court does not necessarily form a precedent for sharia
courts in Malaysia's 12 other states.


Ahmad Jailani said the Penang state religious council, which had opposed
Siti's renunciation of Islam, had signaled it was likely to appeal the
ruling.


(Reporting by Mark Bendeich; Editing by John Chalmers)