STATE laws that allow unilateral religious conversions of minors should be removed as they are unconstitutional, DAP leader P. Ramasamy said today.

The Penang deputy chief minister said those laws became irrelevant following a 2018 Federal Court ruling that both parents must agree on such conversions.

“Why such a process (of removing such state laws) is taking so long to be completed reflects the lack of political will on the part of the federal and some state governments, Ramasamy said in a statement today.

“Turning and twisting facts for the sheer purpose of justifying conversion of minors is nothing but a political act.

“It is an act that has been turned into a racial or religious issue to deny the obvious.”

He was referring to yet another case of unilateral conversion, involving the children of Hindu single mother Loh Siew Hong, 35.

Her three children – Thachinamoorthi, 10, and twins Sulochana and Sulochini, 14 – were converted without her consent by the Hidayah Centre Foundation.

Perlis mufti Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin said state laws allowed unilateral conversions and the conversions by her ex-husband were thus legitimate.

Ramasamy said the law was clear on the matter despite attempts by some quarters to defend and justify the conversion of the three underaged children.

“Those who are daily giving speeches on religious harmony are not prepared to respect that court order that gave sole custody of the children to Loh.”

Ramasamy said the attempts at justification – that the father had given consent, the mother was missing, and that the children had accepted Islam  – were irrelevant to the constitutional provision on conversion of minors as interpreted and decided by the federal court in 2018.

He said that the natural affinity between Loh and her children must not be broken by artificial forces. – February 19, 2022.