Single mother Loh Siew Hong who was last month granted custody of her three children after three years of separation, is seeking a declaration that her ex-husband was legally unfit to convert them to Islam.

The 34-year-old is also asking for a declaration that her twin daughters, aged 13, and 10-year-old son are of the Hindu faith, and a provision in the Perlis state enactment that allows for a parent to unilaterally convert minor children is unconstitutional, reported Free Malaysia Today (FMT).

According to the portal, Loh filed a judicial review application through Messrs Srimurugan & Co at the Kuala Lumpur High Court last Friday, and named the Registrar of Mualaf, the Religious and Malay Customs Council of Perlis, state mufti Asri Zainul Abidin, and the Perlis state government as respondents.

In the filing, she contended that as minors, the children were legally incapable to embrace Islam without her consent, and as such, wants an order of certiorari to quash their conversion dated July 7, 2020, issued by the registrar, and any official registration of their children having embraced Islam to be removed from the authorities' records.

Loh will be represented by a team of three lawyers – A Srimurugan, Shamsher Singh Thind and J Gunamalar.

On Feb 21, the Kuala Lumpur High Court granted Loh's habeas corpus application to recover custody of her three children, from whom she had been separated since 2019.

She was living at a government shelter for domestic abuse victims when her ex-husband Nagashwaran Muniandy took the children and unilaterally converted them to Islam in Perlis.

The children were then left under the care of an Islamic religious NGO in Penang, after Nagashwaran landed in a Kelantan prison for drug-related offences.

Loh has since resigned from her job as an assistant chef in Genting Highlands to spend more time with her kids and plans to start a food truck business.


Source: FMT
Photo source: The Vibes