The issue of apostasy
54
captured international attention as a result of theLina Joycase.
(^55) Lina Joy was a Malay woman who was brought up as a Muslim by her family
under the given name of Azlina bte Jailani. She became a Catholic, met a
Christian man and wanted to marry him. Dato’ Cyrus Das explains,
In order for her to contract a non-Muslim marriage, two things con-
cerning her IC [Identity Card] had to be dealt with administratively.
The Registrar of Marriages could not marry a person under the civil
marriages registry who has a Muslim name. Certainly not if the term
‘Islam’ is on one’s IC.
56In February 1997 , she applied to the National Registration Department (NRD) to
change her name to Lina Lelani, but her application was rejected without
any reason being proffered. She applied a second time to change her name to
‘Lina Joy’ because she had converted to Christianity. Pursuant to advice from the
NRD she submitted a new statutory declaration stating that the reason for
her change of name was because of mere choice. She subsequently was issued a
new identity card with the new name of ‘Lina Joy’ but the new card stated
her religion as Islam. She made her third application to the NRD to have the
word ‘Islam’ removed from her new identity card. That application was rejected ‘on
the ground that it was incomplete without an order of the Syariah Court to the
effect that she had renounced Islam’.
57
It has been pointed out that the NRD
regulations do not contain any provision requiring a person to obtain an order
from the Syariah Court in the case of a Muslim person who wants to change his or
her religion.^58
A majority of the Court of Appeal had held that the NRD was ‘right in law in
rejecting [Lina Joy’s] application...to have the statement of her religion as “Islam”
deleted from her NRIC and in requiring a certificate and/or order from the Syariah
Court’. Leave to appeal was granted for the Federal Court to consider the following
three questions:
(a) Whether the...NRD is entitled in law to impose as a requirement
for deleting the entry of Islam in the applicant’s Identity Card (IC)(^54) Mohamed Azam Mohamed Adil, ‘Law of apostasy and freedom of religion in Malaysia’
( 2007 ) 2 ( 1 )Asian Journal of Comparative Law 1.
(^55) Lina Joyv.Majlis Agama Islam Wilayah Persekutuan and Others[ 2007 ] 4 MLJ 585 (‘Lina
Joy’) 621.
(^56) Dato’ Cyrus Das, ‘Constitutional supremacy and the Lina Joy decision’, in Samuel Ang,
Lee Min Choon and Lim Siew Foong (eds.),Religious Liberty after 50 Years of Independ-
ence(Petaling Jaya: NECF Malaysia Research Commission, 2008 ), p. 44.
(^57) Lina Joyv.Majlis Agama Islam Wilayah Persekutuan and Others[ 2007 ] 4 MLJ 585 (‘Lina
Joy’) at 621 at [ 38 ], per Richard Malanjum CJ (Sabah & Sarawak).
(^58) Das, ‘Constitutional supremacy and the Lina Joy decision’, p. 44.