The final judgment on the Lina Joy case has brought to head the increasingly controversial and divisive issue of religious freedom in Malaysia.

In an apparent attempt to skirt a potential confrontation between the civil court and the syariah court, both the Court of Appeal and the Federal Court (the nation's highest court) had narrowed the case down to one of pure administrative issue whether the National Registration Department (NRD) acted legally in rejecting Joy's application to delete the world "Islam" from her identity card (IC).