[UPDATED] Court tosses single mum Siew Hong’s bid to quash kids’ Muslim status

KUALA LUMPUR – Single mother Loh Siew Hong’s three children remain Muslims as the high court today dismissed her application to nullify their unilateral conversion by their father.

Judge Datuk Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh said in his decision that there was no evidence the three children had stopped professing Islam, Bernama reported.

He said Loh did not deny her ex-husband’s assertion that the children continued performing daily prayers.

Loh, 35, gained custody of the three children – twin girls aged 14 and an 11-year-old son – in 2021 but was only reunited with them last year following a court order, as her husband had allegedly run off with them since 2019.

In August last year, she filed for a judicial review to quash the unilateral conversion of the three children by her previously Hindu ex-husband, M. Nagashwaran.

Their conversion to Islam was recorded in the Perlis Register of Mualaf as having taken place in July 2020.

Wan Ahmad Farid today said his decision was based on there being no evidence the three children have stopped professing the religion of Islam when they are under the care of their mother.

“So, even if the certificates of conversion are not conclusive proof, in view of its unilateral nature, the force of the evidence would suggest that the three children continued professing the religion of Islam,” he said. 

The judge further said that there was no evidence that the three children have reverted to the Hindu religion.  

He also said the children’s certificates of conversion were issued in accordance with Perlis’ Islamic enactments, whereby the children had professed the Syahadah proclamation willingly.  

The judge said that an affidavit by Perlis Islamic Religious and Malay Customs Council's (MAIPs) chief executive officer Mohd Nazim Mohd Noor stated that the children showed intent via their actions to continue to be in Islam even when they were under the custody of Loh last year. 

Wan Ahmad Farid said the affidavit also implied that the children on February 22 last year were still practising Islam, performing the dawn prayer, and one of them even wanted to be a syarie lawyer. 

On Loh’s reliance on the Federal Court’s 2018 landmark judgement in the M. Indira Gandhi case, Wan Ahmar Farid said the children’s welfare in Loh’s case was different. 

“Having regard to all the circumstances of the case, there is no evidence before me that the three children are not happy staying with the applicant. Therefore, the welfare of the children, within the meaning of Indira Ghandi, dictates that the status quo should remain. 

“For the aforesaid reasons, this application for judicial review is dismissed,” the judge said, adding that the court made no order as to costs because the case was a matter of public interest. 

Loh’s judicial review application had named the Perlis State Registrar of Converts, Perlis Islamic Religious and Malay Customs Council, Perlis Mufti Datuk Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin and the Perlis state government as the first to the fourth respondents.   She sought a declaration that her three children are Hindus and that her ex-husband did not have the legal capacity to allow the Perlis State Registrar of Converts to register their children as converts without her consent. 

She also sought a declaration that her three children, as children, do not have the legal capacity to convert to Islam without her consent, a revocation of the declaration of conversion, and to prevent any party from issuing any card on their conversion. – The Vibes, May 11, 2023