KUALA LUMPUR: A foreign woman has turned to the civil courts here to seek a declaration that she is not a Muslim.
In her lawsuit filed this month in the High Court, the 43-year-old contended that she had never recited the affirmation of faith (kalima shahada) to convert to Islam.
She claimed that her then husband registered their marriage before the Selangor Islamic religious department (Jais) without her consent.
“I met him here in 2010 and we decided to get married in 2011. I set a strict condition that I did not want and would never convert to Islam.
“He told me that I didn’t have to convert for the purpose of getting married and arranged our wedding ceremony in a mosque in Sydney, Australia.
“During the solemnisation, I never recited the ‘kalima shahada’, a fact that was confirmed by the mosque officer,” she said.
After the ceremony, the couple returned to Malaysia. The woman alleged that her husband then registered their marriage locally without her presence.
“I believe that I was registered as a Muslim, as stated in the letter from the state chief registrar of Muslim marriages and divorce,” she said.
The woman and her husband were divorced in 2016.
She said in January 2020, she filed an application in the Shariah High Court here to determine her religious status.
“The judge had on March 3, 2021 adjudged that the shariah court has no jurisdiction over me because I am not a Muslim.
“As such, the filing of this originating summons in the civil court is the right step to confirm and rectify my religious status,” she said.