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Malaysia: Court rules plaintiff cannot renounce Islam and revert to Christianity

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – A plaintiff in Malaysia who converted to Islam to marry a Muslim woman has been told by a civil high court that he cannot now renounce his Islamic identity and return to his original identity as a Christian, Free Malaysia Today (FMT) reports.

Malaysia ranks 43rd on the US Open Doors World Watch List 2023 of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.

The 45-year-old plaintiff in question married a Muslim woman in 2010, but the couple divorced in 2015, FMT reports. The plaintiff then filed an application in the Shariah court asking to be able to renounce Islam and be free, but his application was dismissed and he was ordered to attend “counseling sessions” instead.

The man then appealed to the civil courts, with the case eventually reaching the high court, FMT reports. In his ruling on October 4, Justice Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh said civil courts cannot review decisions made by the Shariah courts. “The civil court clearly has no power to review a shariah court’s decision, let alone reverse, depart from or re-litigate (it),” the justice said.

In a website report about the situation facing Christians in Malaysia, the Open Doors international Christian advocacy organization explains: “Every ethnic Malay is expected to be Muslim, and Shariah law, which is implemented in certain states of the country, says that to leave Islam is punishable by death, although this has never been enforced.”