SINGLE mother Loh Siew Hong has failed in her bid to nullify the unilateral conversion of her three children to Islam at the Kuala Lumpur High Court today, Malaysiakini reports.

Her judicial review over the religious status of her 14-year-old twin daughters and her 11-year-old son was dismissed by the court.

On September 20, the High Court granted an ex parte application for leave for Loh to initiate committal proceedings against her Muslim convert ex-husband, who was accused of abducting their three children and registering them as Muslim converts in 2019 without her consent.

Justice Evrol Mariette Peters said there was a court order that granted Loh sole custody of her children on March 31, 2019, which she claimed was violated by her husband Muhammad Nagahswaran Muniandy.

Free Malaysia Today reported that Justice Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh said there was no evidence that the three children had stopped practising Islam. 

“The applicant did not deny the assertion (by Nagahswaran) that the children continued professing the religion of Islam in performing daily ‘subuh’ prayers when they were in custody,” he said. 

Wan Ahmad said the children had been practicing Islam and one of them wanted to be a Shariah lawyer.  

He said this was sufficient proof that they were Muslim, setting aside Loh’s assertions as “bare denial”.  

“Even if the certificates of conversion were not (considered) 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. 

He said the ruling did not depart from the landmark case of Indira Gandhi and her children’s unilateral conversion.  

Wan Ahmad said the court was putting a precedence on the welfare of the children since there was no evidence before the court that the children had reverted to Hinduism. 

“There is no evidence before me that the three children have reverted to the Hindu religion. 

“There is another aspect of the Indira case that has been rarely discussed in subsequent reported cases. It concerns the welfare of the children that must take precedence,” he said. 

When contacted, Loh’s lawyer A. Srimurugan said they would be filing an appeal against the decision at the Court of Appeal. – May 11, 2023.