Loh Siew Hong failed in her legal bid to nullify the unilateral conversion of her three children to Islam.
This afternoon, the High Court in Kuala Lumpur dismissed the 35-year-old single mother’s judicial review over the religious status of her twin daughters, aged 14, as well as her 11-year-old son.
Having allegedly run off with her children in 2019, her former husband Muhammad Nagahswaran Muniandy, 35, converted to Islam in 2020 and then converted their children without her consent.
Having been awarded custody of the children in 2021, Loh was only reunited with them in early 2022 via a court order.
During online proceedings today, judge Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh ruled that the children have been validly converted to Islam in accordance with Perlis Islamic state law, with the state Islamic authorities’ affidavit confirming that the children recited the kalimah syahadah (Islamic recitation to convert to Islam) in 2020.
The civil court judge pointed out that an affidavit by Perlis Islamic Religious and Malay Customs Council's (MAIPs) CEO Mohd Nazim Mohd Noor showed 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.
Farid noted on Nazim’s affidavit showing that the children as of Feb 22 last year were still practicing Islam, performing the dawn prayer, and one of them even wanted to be a syarie lawyer.
The judge said Loh’s affidavit denying this assertion of Nazim amounted to bare denial and that the single mother did not deny the affirmative assertion that the children continued to profess Islam while under her custody.
Facts differed in Indira Gandhi's case
Farid said even if the certificates of conversion were not conclusive proof in view of their unilateral nature, the “force of evidence” showed that the three children continued to practice Islam.
The judge noted that Nagahswaran in his affidavit said he converted to Islam on July 7, 2020, as he was persuaded by his three children.
“There is no evidence before me that the three children have reverted to the Hindu religion,” the judge said, adding that the father had given consent for their conversion as per Perlis' syariah law permitting unilateral conversion.
Referring to Loh’s reliance on the landmark 2018 apex court judgment of kindergarten teacher M Indira Gandhi’s quashing of the unilateral conversion of her own children, Farid pointed out that the facts in that legal precedent differed from the present case.
The judge noted that the apex bench in the Indira Gandhi case ruled that when a child’s religion or religious upbringing becomes an issue, then it is paramount for the court to safeguard the welfare of the child, having regard to all circumstances of the case.
“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 (Loh). Although this is another issue, it is quite related to the instant case.
“There is no evidence that the three children have stopped professing the religion of Islam when they are under the care of the applicant either.
“Therefore, the welfare of the children, within the meaning of Indira Gandhi, dictates that the status quo should remain.
“For the aforesaid reasons, this application for judicial review is dismissed,” Farid said, adding that the civil court made no order as to costs due to the public interest nature of the matter.
Loh was represented by counsel A Srimurugan, Dr Shamsher Singh Thind, Gunamalar Joorindanjn and Thian Yee Chin.
MAIPs, which is one of the four respondents in the judicial review, was represented by lawyers Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla, Zainul Rijal Abu Bakar, Aidil Khalid, Muhammad Hariz Yusoff and Danial Farhan.
Perlis legal advisor Mohd Radhi Abas appeared for the other three respondents, namely the state Mualaf Registrar, state Mufti Mohd Asri Zainul Arifin, and the state government.
When contacted after proceedings, Gunamalar confirmed that Loh would be appealing to the Court of Appeal to overturn today’s verdict. - Mkini
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