Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - The fate of an ethnic Chinese man who was switched at birth and brought up as a Malay Muslim, and who now wants to renounce the religion, is in the hands of Malaysia's Sharia courts, according to a report.
The director of the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (JAKIM) said the religious courts had the authority to determine if DNA testing could be used as a justification to renounce Islam, the Malay-language Berita Harian said.
Malaysia's religious courts are usually extremely reluctant to allow anyone to abandon Islam, a move the religion considers among the gravest of sins.
"To change from Islam to another religion, they would need to get permission from the Sharia court," JAKIM's Mustafa Abdul Rahman told Berita Harian.
Mustafa was commenting on the case of Zulhaidi Omar, 29, who in an extraordinary series of events was reunited with his ethnic Chinese birth parents after discovering he was switched at birth.
DNA testing confirmed he was the son of 66-year-old Teo Ma Leong and his wife Lim Sik Hai, 62, who had always suspected that the darker-skinned baby they brought home from hospital was not theirs.
Mustafa said the ethnic Malay child who was brought up by the Teos, and named Tian Fa, would not be forced to embrace Islam despite his heritage.
Malays make up 60 percent of the population, compared with 26 percent ethnic Chinese and eight percent ethnic Indians.
The country's civil courts operate parallel to Sharia courts for Muslims in areas such as divorce and child custody but the question of which takes precedence is increasingly murky in cases also involving non-Muslims.
It has triggered some high-profile clashes. Last year a mountaineering hero born a Hindu was buried as a Muslim despite his family's protests.
Zulhaidi told the newspaper that his birth records could not be found at the hospital where he was born.
"I have no intention to sue the hospital," he said according to Berita Harian.
"But I hope they will be able to release a statement to acknowledge that they had made a mistake by switching us at birth so I can get on with my life and the religion of my choice."
Zulhaidi said he always felt out of place growing up in an ethnic Malay family, suffering taunts over his Chinese looks, and at 13 walked out of his home and began earning his own living.
He was working in a supermarket when a woman noticed a strong family resemblance to her own parents, and they subsequently discovered she was his sister. Since then he has been living with the Teos.