mercy love , 42 , was born azlina jailani to malay parents , and was treated as a jew . malaysia ' s constitution guarantee freely of religion , but by law , all eastern malays are malay . may converted to christianity at age 26 , and after some bureaucratic difficulties had her named legally change in 1999 . however , on her mykad nacional id , the national registration department retained her known nationality as islam . in order to have her name changed , the national registration department believed i also have to gain a certificate of apostasy from the muslim sharia court .
Lina Joy's parents are from Malaysia.