In a landmark decision, a Malaysian court has allowed a Chinese woman who had converted to Islam to revert to Buddhism.

In what is being described as a first for Malaysia, Judge Othman Ibrahim of the Northern state of the Penang Sharia court, that deals with cases under Islamic jurisprudence, ruled that he had no choice but to declare that Siti Fatimah Tan Abdullah was "no longer a Muslim as she had never practised the teachings of Islam."

The court also criticized the state religious council for not ensuring that Siti Fatimah practised Islam.

Apostasy, or renouncing the faith, is one of the gravest sins in Islam and a very sensitive issue in Malaysia where Islamic sharia courts rarely allow such renunciations and have jailed apostates.

Islam is Malaysia’s official religion. More than 60 per cent of the nation’s 27 million people are Muslim Malays.

The Islamic Sharia courts operate in parallel to civil courts but apply specifically to Muslims.

Siti Fatimah, who is from Nibong Tebal, is Chinese by birth. In her application filed in May, 2007, to renounce her religion, Siti Fatimah, whose Chinese name is Tan Ean Huang, said she converted to Islam in July 1998 but never practised it.

The woman claimed before the court that she had converted for the sake of marrying an Iranian named Ferdoun Ashanian in 1999, but he left her a few months later. She has no knowledge of his current whereabouts.

"All I want to do now is find a boyfriend and get on with my life," she said after the court ruling.

"It has been traumatic for me while my case was pending. However, now that it is finally over I hope to move on. I also hope to be able to find a boyfriend now that the issue surrounding my religious status has been cleared."

She said it had been difficult to build a relationship with Chinese men as they were afraid of a getting tangled in a religious issue.

Tan said she initially did not understand judge Othman Ibrahim’s decision, which was read out in Bahasa Malaysia interspersed with Arabic.

Outside the court, her lawyer, Ahmad Jailani Abdul Ghani, explained the decision.

She was alarmed when a reporter told her that the Penang Islamic Religious Council (MAIP) planned to appeal the decision, but Jailani advised her that it was normal procedure and there was nothing to fear.

The judge rebuked the state Islamic religious council for not counselling and looking after converts. "In this case, it is clear that the council has failed to live up to its responsibilities and the outcome is clear for all to see."

Malaysian Bar Council vice president Ragunath Kesavan said Sharia courts should not be the final arbiters in deciding cases of renunciation.