In Malaysia, freedom of religion has clear limitations, especially regarding Muslims wishing to leave Islam, who may currently find it difficult to secure legal acceptance. However, such applications are received under a Sharia legal provision in Negeri Sembilan -the only state in Malaysia that allows a Muslim to change his religion for reasonable cause. The application is made at the Sharia High Court, and is then forwarded to the Mufti's Department, which in turn arranges a consultation for the applicant to reconsider his decision. This article critically reviews this process of application to leave Islam and also provides a clear mapping of principal court decisions and an analysis of the legal rationale for accepting some applications and refusing others. The paper is critical of the disproportionate discretion afforded to Muslim bureaucrats in the Mufti's Department with regard to determining an individual's religious rights and argues that, in Malaysia, the power to legally determine or classify religion should be confined to the Sharia Court. Finally, the article evaluates how "applications to leave Islam" are reconciled with and distinguished from the Islamic prohibition of "apostasy" and so is relevant to Islamic countries beyond Malaysia.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License Newcastle University ePrints -eprint.ncl.ac.uk

According to the provision under Article 11(1) of Federal Constitution, those who professing non-Islamic Religion can practice their belief freely, subject to the restriction that they cannot propagate their belief to Muslims. Meanwhile, Article 11(4) of Federal Constitution gave the authorization to the state in Malaysia to control or restrict the propagation of any religious doctrine or belief among Muslims. In relation to both provisions stated above, triggered an enactment on Controlling and Restricting the Propagation of Non-Islamic Religion to Muslims, which has been legislated since 1980 by the state of Terengganu, and then followed by other states in Malaysia. To date, after 37 years of legislation and introduction of the enactment, all states in Malaysia have gazetted this except Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur, Pulau Pinang, Sarawak, and Sabah. However, there were only seven out of ten states has gazetted the authority to their Islamic Enforcement Officers to execute the law. The purpose of this article is to give justification about the source of power and jurisdiction of the Islamic Enforcement Officer related to the said Enactment. From 2014 to 2017, twelve (12) Islamic Enforcement Officers has been interviewed structurally and non-structurally in order to obtain related information pertaining to this issue. This study revealed that the respondents (Islamic Enforcement Officers) were not aware about the existence of the said Enactment in their states as well as about the power and jurisdiction that are already in their possession, including when facing any cases in court against the non-Muslim accused. Therefore, the importance of this research is to empower the institution of justice in Malaysia in handling the issues of propagation of the non-Islamic Religion towards Muslims, in corresponding to limit the rights of propagating religion, as provided under the Federal Constitution.

Community service orders are a proposed alternative form of punishment for children who have been or are in conflict with the law. Despite an absence of clear laws in Malaysia pertaining to this order regarding its application to child offenders, it is nonetheless viewed as a more suitable form of punishment in protecting a child offender's best interest compared to a fine or a sentence of imprisonment. In light of the above, the objective of this article is to analyse two main legal issues relating to the future implementation of community service orders as an alternative form of sentence, such as the number of credit hours per sentence and the types of community service activities to be implemented. The research has shown that there is no uniformity in determining the minimum and maximum amount of credit hours in implementing community service orders against child offenders where some countries may have the maximum of 80 to 150 hours and 8 to 10 hours for the minimum. The research also found that community service orders have greatly benefited both the society and child offenders; the child offenders will be integrated back to the society and might as well undergo their rehabilitation process. This research may be significant in preparing guidelines or a complete implementation model for community service orders applicable to child offenders in Malaysia, as well as a reference for the Officers in the Community Service Department and Magistrates in the Child Courts in Malaysia.

No abstract

The unilateral conversion of minors to Islam is a controversial issue in Malaysia, particularly when it involves conflicting legal rights between Muslim converts and their non-Muslim families regarding issues of parental rights, child custody and determination of the child’s religion. Even more pertinent is the fact that the issue of conversion is intertwined with legal and socio-political issues such as the rising Muslim religious conservatism, Islamisation of law and political identity. As such, this article aims to discuss the issues of parental rights, child custody and determination of the child’s religion in the context of conversion to Islam in Malaysia from a legal and Muslim convert’s perspective. To explore the perspective of Muslim converts on the matter, nine participants were interviewed for the purpose of this study and were recruited through the snowball method amongst activist converts and individuals who were involved in related court cases. This study found that the negotiations that have to be made by these converts demonstrate the pressure they face to prove their commitment to their new religion, all the while maintaining their family dynamic. To some converts, Islam and its terms are referenced in the negotiation process, whether through legal channels or through public discourse; further, there are more peaceful narratives that ensure the family dynamics and its integrity, despite the ultimate goal being a da’wah (proselytisation) agenda. Beyond Malaysia, this study shows how religious laws impact the lives of multiethnic and multireligious community.

The Practice Direction issued by the Department of Syariah Judiciary Malaysia (JKSM) has helped fill the loopholes in the Islamic law provisions related to matrimonial property claims due to divorce, death or polygamy. However, to date, there has been no mapping made to match the Practice Directions with the loopholes in the statutes. Therefore, this study aims to analyse the position of Practice Directions in matrimonial property proceedings using a document analysis approach based on cases found in Jurnal Hukum, grounds of judgment, reported cases, and interviews with seven study participants who are directly involved with matrimonial property case proceedings in Syariah Courts. The findings of the study found that three reforms should be done on the statute of Islamic law in Malaysia starting from the legal reform related to the place of registration of case claims, the position of matrimonial property claims due to death and also the procedure of giving testimony in court, which can also be done in writing. This study is important to assist researchers and experts in understanding the efforts and the process of standardisation of Islamic law in Malaysia.

An autist refers to a person who suffers from Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), a complex disorder of mental development, causing the person to be adversely affected, especially in social and behavioral aspects of life. Prior to the introduction of a specific Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the arrest and detention of autists, the Royal Malaysia Police applied the same standard operating procedure in the Criminal Procedure Code for typical individuals, to autists suspected of criminal offences. However, the issue arising is the legal rights of people with disabilities whereby this SOP is seen as inappropriate and unsuitable to be applied to cases involving autists. As a result, the authorities and parties involved in handling autists came up with the idea of the need for a specific SOP applicable for their arrest and detention. Finally, in the year 2019, the Royal Malaysia Police, in cooperation with NGOs directly involved with autist, successfully launched a specific SOP for autists. The objectives of this article are to study the significance of the specific SOP for autists, and analyse and compare it with the usual SOP for typical people. The methodology of this research is qualitative. Collection of research data used document analysis. Data obtained was thematically and comparatively analysed. Research results find that there are differences between the specific SOP for autists and standard SOP for typical suspects. The differences lie in the legal rights of the autists in Malaysia, namely, in the aspects of arrest and detention of autistic suspects.