THE case of single parent Loh Siew Hong’s separation from her children, who have been converted to Islam, is not about religion but reuniting a mother with her young, lawyer Shamsher Singh Thind said today. 

He was referring to Loh’s legal application to be united with her children who were converted to the Muslim faith without the mother’s consent.

Shamsher, who is Loh’s lawyer, said the question of whether the children love their mother does not arise as she is their rightful, legal custodian.

“The issue is that the biological mother (Loh) has been given sole custody, care and control of the children. 

“Even after the order was issued, she still had a tough time reuniting with her children as certain parties were stipulating their own terms. 

“All this is not part of the law as she was already granted sole custody, care and control,” Shamsher told reporters in the court lobby. 

Today, the Kuala Lumpur High Court today ordered Loh to be reunited with her children. 

Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah delivered the decision today, quashing the illegal custody of the three children by the Social Welfare Department and one Nazirah Nanthakumari. 

Loh was separated from her 14-year-old twin daughters and 10-year-old son in 2019 while she was in hospital for injuries she claimed she sustained from physical abuse by her ex-husband Naghaswaran Muniandy.

Loh was afterwards unable to find her children. Nagahswaran had the children converted sometime the following year. 

The father is currently in prison in Kelantan for a drug offence.

The High Court in March last year granted full custody of the children to their mother, who finally found them last month at a Perlis welfare home only to discover they had been converted to Islam.

Despite the court order, neither the police nor the welfare authorities agreed to hand over the children to her.

Malaysian Tamilar Kural spokesman David Marshel expressed his happiness at Loh’s reunion with her children. 

He emphasised that the religion of the children was a personal matter, which would be decided by the family. 

“We are very happy with the judge’s decision to reunite Loh and her children.

“The conversion issue of the three children is not something we have highlighted since day one but still we are labelled as anti-Islam, extremist and others. 

“If they want to convert, that is a personal issue of the family but our motive was only to reunite them,” he said. – February 21, 2022.