[Malaysia] ‘Islam’ to stay on identity cards, rules court

‘Islam’ to stay on identity cards, rules court

Arfa’eza A Aziz, Malaysiakini, Sep 19, 05

It is crucial for the National Registration Department (NRD) to seek confirmation from the Syariah Court before allowing applications to remove the word ‘Islam’ from national registration identity cards, ruled the Court of Appeal today.

The ruling was made when dismissing an appeal by Lina Joy, who wanted the word ‘Islam’ struck off her identity card as she had embraced Christianity.

In a majority judgment, the court ruled that NRD could not allow her application in the absence of a confirmation from the Syariah Court.

It was also held that the documentary evidence provided by Lina, which included her statutory declaration on her change of religion, was insufficient to compel the NRD to officially classify her as a non-Muslim.

“[...] whether a person has renounced Islam is a question of Islamic law that is not within the jurisdiction of the NRD and the NRD is note quipped or qualified to decide,” said Judge Abdul Aziz Mohamad in his 37-page judgment.

“The NRD would be right in taking the stand that it is not for it to decide. It may be that according to Islamic law that no Muslim be treated as having apostatised, no matter what he may have done or failed to do, unless and until he has been declared an apostate by some proper authority,” he added.

The appeal was heard before judges Abdul Aziz, Gopal Sri Ram and Arifin Zakaria. The majority judgment was by Abdul Aziz and Arifin while Gopal dissented.

Serious consequences

On April 18, 2001, the High Court ruled that being a Muslim, Lina - whosename was Azlina Jailani before becoming a Christian in 1998 - could not renounce Islam and the issue should be decided by the Syariah Court.

The court had also rejected her quest for a declaration that she is free to practise the religion of her choice as stated in the Federal Constitution.

In 1998, the NRD allowed her application to change her name but refused to delete the word ‘Islam’ from her identity card stating that it had no jurisdiction to do so without proper advice from the Syariah Courts.

In his judgment, Abdul Aziz said that serious consequences would entail if the NRD was to accept that a person has apostatised merely on his or her own declaration.

“[...] it (NRD) runs the risk of mistakenly stamping a person non-Muslim who, according to Islamic law, has not apostatised.

“It will also be making it easy for persons who are born and bred as Muslims but who are indifferent to the religion to get classified as non-Muslims simply to avoid being punished for committing the offences [...] it will consequently be inviting the censure of the Muslim community,” he added.

He said NRD’s decision must be seen more in its unwillingness to accept that Lina had renounced Islam solely on the basis of her word in her declaration than in its specifying of the authority on whose word it would be willing to act.

He added that it was clear that so long as the confirmation came from some authority, in this case the Syariah Court, this would then be sufficient for the NRD to make the changes.

“All it (the NRD) wanted was a proper confirmation by someone who had the authority to give it, reliance on which could free it from error or public blame in such an important and sensitive matter,” he said.

Abdul Aziz also stressed that his judgment is not a reflection towards Muslims apostates.

“My decision, and the reasons that I have given must not be taken as in any way as a reflection of my attitude, as a judge or an individual, towards her desire that she be no longer regarded as a Muslim. My decision is simply to say that the NRD was not wrong in administrative law in rejecting her application,” he explained.

Allow application

In his dissenting judgment, Gopal held that an order from the Syariah Court is not a relevant document for the processing of Lina’s application.

He said the documentary evidence provided by her was sufficient to enable the NRD to make the necessary change as prescribed under regulation 14(2) of the department’s regulations.

“Accordingly, it is my considered judgment that by requiring the production of the order/certificate (from the Syariah Court), the department’s director-general took into account an irrelevant consideration when deciding not to effect the amendment to her identification card,” he said.

As such, he added, Lina is entitled to have her identity card in which the word ‘Islam’ does not appear.