Syariah lawyer who helps those who want out of Islam

Jun 19, 2014

KUALA LUMPUR: Unbeknownst to many, there is a tiny by-law under the country’s Syariah legislation which allows for Malaysians to be legally declared as non-Muslims. But Malay Muslims are not provided for under this law as Malays cannot attest to any religion in this country, other than Islam.

In Selangor, this tiny ‘escape’ provision resides under the Administration of the Religion of Islam (State of Selangor) Enactment 2003, Section 61(3)(b)(x), which allows the court to decide whether a person is still a Muslim, or otherwise.

One Syariah lawyer, who claims he is unpopular among other such practitioners has taken up more than 85 cases of Muslims – both by birth and converts – who want to declare themselves as non-Muslims.

Ab Kadir Ismail, who practises civil and syariah law, says there is a fine line between being an apostate and declaring oneself out of Islam.

“If you refer to the Selangor (Syariah) law, there is a tiny law that states that the state has the jurisdiction to declare a person is no more a Muslim – (a) very tiny law,” said Ab Kadir, when met by fz.com recently.

He presented “confusion in the legislation” citing how a person can apply, under the first schedule of the law to declare oneself a Muslim but that under the second schedule, there is no application allowed.

Ab Kadir said that therefore, it will be a summons by the court when one wants to declare himself or herself a non-Muslim.

As a Muslim himself, he adds, he believes he should help these people “as they too have a life to live”.

Without declaring themselves out of Islam legally, these Muslims are caught in a bind and cannot get married, or work or have children, Ab Kadir adds.

His first challenge emerged 10 years ago as his client had been rejected by other lawyers and since then, he has only had one successful case in which his client was declared a non-Muslim.

The remaining more than 80 cases are still pending in court – which goes to show the length of the proceedings for the cause.

Ab Kadir says many come to him as they are born Muslims, but have never known or practised the faith.

Either one of their parents would have been a Muslim convert and the children then might have been raised as a non-Muslim due to family troubles, or the children may have been left with non-Muslim relatives.

Then there are cases of clients who convert to Islam to marry a Muslim, but when the marriage does not work out, the client opts to get out of the religion.

Ab Kadir also said that there were a few who converted on the basis of being promised something in return, while some claimed to have been under a spell when they took their oath as Muslims.

The prosecuting authorities normally have a very weak defence, the lawyer says. Further, he adds, it would be difficult to get these clients to go back to Islam — even after being given a chance to repent — as they have already professed another religion their whole life despite having a Muslim name.

Ab Kadir said there are many such cases throughout Malaysia and he has seen an increase in such cases over the years as this is a multi-religious country.

He called upon the religious authorities to step up extending help and knowledge as well as reaching out to the people if they wanted to lessen such cases.

Ab Kadir said the only solution to this is to embrace all Muslims — believing or not — wholeheartedly.

At the moment, he said his clients are immediately rejected by the authorities — such as Malaysian Islamic Religious Department (Jakim) and Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) — when they seek help to declare themselves as non-Muslims. This only serves to create further bitterness against Islam, he said. -- fz.com