Lina ‘must go to syariah court’
PUTRAJAYA: Lina Joy lost her long battle through the courts yesterday to have her religious status adjudicated under the country’s civil laws.
The Federal Court rejected her appeal for the removal of the word "Islam" from her identity card, saying the issue of conversion should be dealt with by the syariah court.

The three-judge panel, comprising Chief Justice Tun Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim, Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Datuk Richard Malanjum and Datuk Alauddin Mohd Sheriff, ruled 2-1 against Lina, who has been trying to effect the change for nine years.

Ahmad Fairuz, with Alauddin concurring and Malanjum dissenting, said in a 42-page judgment that there were three issues that needed to be decided:
? Whether the National Registration Department was entitled in law to impose a requirement for a person to produce a declaration from the syariah court before deleting the word "Islam" from the person’s IC..
? Whether the NRD was correct to impose the requirement when it was not expressly provided for in the regulations, and;
? Whether a prior case of religious conversion had been rightly decided when the court declared that Islamic matters were under the jurisdiction of the syariah court.

Ahmad Fairuz said he agreed with the NRD that it could not accept the statutory declaration provided by Lina that she was no longer a Muslim.
"If this is done, those born and educated as Muslims may also choose to remain ignorant, or, in wanting to prevent persecution from Islamic laws, may declare themselves to be renouncing the religion.
"This would result in Muslim society being ostracised. For this reason, in the majority decision I feel that a statutory declaration to the NRD to determine a person’s religion was insufficient for the word ‘Islam’ to be removed."

Lina, 43, born Azlina Jailani, had managed to change her name in her identity card, but her religion remained listed as Islam. She made several applications between 1998 and 2000 to remove the word, but these were rejected.
"The NRD officer was acting within his powers to seek documentary statements as reference which he felt necessary to support any application.
"Reference here need not mean that the syariah court had the jurisdiction to delete the word "Islam" in the identity card. The syariah court is only required to determine whether the appellant was still a Muslim based on Islamic law."
Ahmad Fairuz said the court felt that the determination of whether a person had renounced Islam was within the realm of Islamic law, and that the right authority was thus the syariah court.

"Hence, the NRD’s reluctance to react until it received certification from an Islamic authority like the syariah court was logical," he said.
Lina had sought legal redress at the High Court, naming the Federal Territory Islamic Council, the government and the director-general of the NRD as respondents.
On April 23, 2001, the court dismissed her application on the grounds that the issue should be decided by the syariah court. It also held that as a Malay and a Muslim, she could not convert.
She took her case to the Court of Appeal and, on Sept 19, 2005, was again turned down by a 2-1 decision. She then appealed to the nation’s highest court.

"If a person professes and practises Islam, he should be following Islamic laws including his conversion or renunciation," Ahmad Fairuz said.
"That is what is meant by adopting and practising Islam. What the NRD did was to ascertain whether Lina had renounced the religion. I do not see it as an infringement to freedom of religion as provided in the Constitution."
On the third issue before the court, Ahmad Fairuz felt that the case had been correctly decided.

In that case, Soon Singh had applied to renounce Islam and the High Court declared that jurisdiction on Islamic matters belonged to the syariah court.
The Federal Court, where the case went on appeal, also affirmed that it had no express provisions to deal with apostasy and that the issue came under the purview of the syariah court.

Lina receives decision with ‘great sorrow’

Her counsel, Benjamin Dawson, issued a brief statement in which she said: "Only God knows what is in my heart and I hope everyone will respect my conviction."

Lina’s whereabouts remain unknown.

Her mother, identified only as Mak Som, had wanted to see her daughter at court.

But the mother could not bear to hear the decision and decided against going to court.
Mak Som’s friend, who declined to be named, said Mak Som changed her mind at the last minute. "But after I informed her of the court’s decision, she praised God."

The friend said that Mak Som had not wanted her daughter to convert to Christianity. She said that Mak Som still harboured hopes of Lina embracing Islam again. She performed the umrah last August with that hope.

Lina is the third of six siblings.

Prayers on judgment day

PUTRAJAYA: About 500 people gathered at the Palace of Justice yesterday, to get the first-hand news of a long-awaited conclusion to the Lina Joy case.

Islamic and non-Islamic non-governmental organisations, local and foreign press and others had assembled peacefully, as early as 7am. The situation grew intense as the Federal Court began proceedings.

Just before the decision was read out at 10.40am, a group of eight women sat in front of the entrance and began reciting verses. Some were seen wiping tears from their eyes.

Soon after, about 300 men and women joined in chanting verses.

The decision to the people outside the court was conveyed through SMS calls, even as the judgment was being read out in court.

By noon, security personnel had asked the crowd to disperse.

About 10 police officers stood guard at the building’s main entrance and another 10 were in the courtroom.

Putrajaya police chief Superintendent Ab Razak Ab Majid was also present.
 

Department ‘wrong’ to deny Lina Joy’s request

PUTRAJAYA: The National Registration Department was wrong to reject Lina Joy’s application to remove the word "Islam" from her identity card, according to Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Datuk Richard Malanjum.

In his 58-page dissenting opinion in the landmark case yesterday, he noted that Joy had stated in her application that she was a Christian.

"This fact was known by the NRD as early as Feb 21, 1997, when she made her application," he said.

"Hence, her third application in 1999 should have been processed and the NRD should construe the series of applications as one continuous episode."

Malanjum said it was not the function of the NRD to ensure that Lina had properly apostasised as such a matter should be left to the relevant religious authorities to take any action as deemed necessary.
"The NRD has not shown that one of its statutory duties is to ensure that a person has properly renounced the Islamic faith in accordance with the requirements of the Islamic authorities."

The judge said he agreed with Lina’s counsel that requiring production of a certificate of apostasy was not provided for in the NRD’s regulations.

"The NRD had acted ultra vires or illegally," he said. Malanjum said it was wrong to apply Lina’s case retrospectively according to the amendments of the NRD Regulations in March 2000.

The regulations require the word "Islam" to be included in the ICs of Malays.

"Joy made the application three times from 1997 and the last one in 1999. Surely, those applications should be considered as part of a continuing act.

"To confine the matter to the third application only is completely ignoring the history of the plight of the appellant in her dealings with the NRD."

The judge said the insistence by the NRD for a certificate of apostasy from the Federal Territory syariah court was not only illegal but unreasonable.

"The FT syariah court has no statutory power to adjudicate on the issue of apostasy.

"Thus, the insistence was unreasonable for it required the performance of an act that was almost impossible to perform."

The FT syariah laws did not have provisions for murtad or renunciation.

Malanjum said the principle of administrative law stated that a public authority must not act mechanically and must consider each case on its merits.

Hence, in ordering the NRD to remove the word "Islam" from Lina’s IC, Malanjum said the NRD must retain discretion to depart from its policy whenever public interest so demands.

Lina was represented by counsel Datuk Dr Cyrus Das, Benjamin Dawson and David Matthews.

The FT Islamic Council was represented by Sulaiman Abdullah while the government and NRD director-general was represented by senior federal counsel Azizah Nawawi