Conversion of Loh Siew Hong’s children not against Perlis laws: state mufti

KUALA LUMPUR – Perlis Mufti Datuk Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin has again taken to his Facebook page to lambast critics over the alleged conversion of Penang mother Loh Siew Hong’s three children, saying that her consent is not necessary according to state laws. 

During a ceramah (talk) aired on his official Facebook profile last night, Asri – popularly known as Dr Maza – said this is because Perlis Islamic laws do not need both parents to agree to the conversion as it can be done solely by either the father, mother or a legal guardian.

“DAP and the ‘LTTE’ extremists said there is a breach of law because the conversion to Islam happened without the mother’s consent.

“I want to tell them that in 2016, the Perlis state assembly amended the law mentioning ‘both the mother and father’ to ‘either the mother or father’. Any lawyer can refer to this (amendment). In terms of the law in Perlis, there is no breach.”

He said other states may require the consent of both parents, but this is not the case in Perlis.

During the ceramah, Asri said in the absence of both parents, the children were put under the care of a Penang-based ustazah who looked after them with her own funds.

He said the ustazah had made numerous attempts to reach out to Loh after finding the latter on Facebook, but it took a while before Loh responded.

He also alleged that the children were “angry” with Loh, but the ustazah had taught them not to hate their mother.

“The ustazah was willing to pay for her (Loh’s) travel expenses to let her see her children but she gave many excuses. Then came this February when she (Loh) and the DAP team claimed that the children were kidnapped.

“When the father was in (prison) and the mother never showed up, and after the ustazah had looked after the children for so long, the ‘gang’ from DAP and lawyers called the ustazah to berate her and tell her not to let the children convert (to Islam).”

Asri alleged that the ustazah had received death threats from commenters during a Facebook live session that was held to discuss the issue. 

Loh’s saga was made more complicated after Asri uploaded an Instagram video days ago showing that two of the children had apparently converted. The other child, a 10-year-old boy, was not seen in the video.

In the brief video, he was seen having a solemn chat with the two daughters aged 14, with the brief conversation centred on their alleged conversion to Islam. The two teenage girls were clad in an attire associated with Muslim women, although the audio was unclear.

Yesterday, Bukit Gelugor MP Ramkarpal Singh called on the Perlis religious authorities to reverse the conversion of three young children to Islam, which had allegedly occurred two years ago.

The DAP lawmaker and lawyer said in a statement that the process has run afoul of the law, citing a 2018 Federal Court ruling on the M. Indira Gandhi case.

Loh, an ex-hotelier, is currently embroiled in a custody battle over her three children against the Perlis religious authorities.

The three children – a pair of twin daughters aged 14 and their younger brother aged 10 – have been living under the care of the religious authorities since 2019 after their parents divorced.

At the time, Loh was recuperating from the trauma of what she alleged to have been an abusive marriage and the subsequent divorce.

Her husband, who converted to Islam and had allegedly unilaterally converted the children, is serving time for a narcotics charge at a prison in Kelantan.

Since late 2019, Loh has been fighting a custody battle with the authorities despite having been armed with a Kuala Lumpur High Court order, which pronounces her as her children’s legal guardian.

Loh’s lawyer Shamsher Singh Thind said his client is contesting the conversion on grounds that she was never consulted about it. – The Vibes, February 18, 2022