In a ruling on Friday Justice Zaleha Rose Pandin of the High Court in Kota Kinabalu held that the applicant, Rieno Glant Oleant George, was never converted to Islam, either by his parents or on his own accord, the Daily Express reported.
She said the fact of his non-conversion was backed by the Sabah Islamic religious affairs department which noted that Rieno was not registered in a list of Muslim converts.
Zaleha also ruled that there was no provision in state law that a child automatically follows the religion of the mother when the mother converts to Islam through remarriage.
Even if it is contended that he had automatically followed his mother’s religion of Islam when he was a minor, the matter was subject to a Federal Court precedent, the judge held.
Zaleha agreed with Rieno’s contention that, as he was never a Muslim, he would not be able to seek recourse from the Shariah Court, as he was instructed to do by the national registration department when he applied to strike off the word “Islam” from his identity card.
She held that the High Court was the proper avenue for Rieno’s application to be heard, saying “it is absurd to expect the plaintiff to seek for an order from the Shariah Court when the matter is clearly within the jurisdiction of the civil court”.
Rieno had sought a declaration that the term “Islam” had been wrongfully entered into his MyKad.
He challenged the registration department’s “failure, neglect and/or refusal to rectify it” on the grounds that it required the Shariah Court to first declare him to be a non-Muslim.
Rieno contended that the department’s stance was “illegal, unconstitutional, and amounted to fettering of its discretion”.
The judge said Rieno was born to Christian parents and later raised by his grandmother in a Christian upbringing. He was never converted to Islam, either by his parents or on his own accord.
She said a letter by the Sabah religious department was self-explanatory and crystal clear, especially as the department was the custodian of the full list of converts in Sabah.
Zaleha ruled that ticking a box marked “Islam” in an application form, as it was in Rieno’s case, was not conclusive proof of conversion to Islam.
In his application to the High Court, Rieno stated he was born to Christian parents in 1995. No religious affiliation was indicated on his birth certificate.
His parents divorced when he was three months old and he was raised by his maternal grandmother as a Christian. In 1998, his mother remarried and converted to Islam.
When Rieno was 12, he applied for a MyKad and after receiving the document realised that the religion was listed as “Islam.”
He returned to the registration department to seek clarification and was told that since his parents were listed as Muslim in their database, his document had to state the same and that he could only amend it after he turned 18.
Rieno was also advised to seek clarification from the religious department, which confirmed on Sept 15, 2022 that he was not registered as a convert.
He then instructed his lawyers to inform the registration department and requested that his MyKad be rectified. However,he was informed that his application would be rejected as an order from the Shariah Court was required.