SINGLE mother Loh Siew Hong does not care that her three children have been converted to Islam, as long as they are returned to her.

Her children are Thachinamoorthi, 10, and twin girls Sulochana and Sulochini, 14.

Loh told The Malaysian Insight while she is angry that outsiders have converted her children without her consent, she will not force her three children to convert out of Islam.

The 35-year-old chef who works in Genting Highlands also spoke about the years she had suffered abuse at the hands of her ex-husband, Nagashwaran Muniandy, only to have her children ripped away from her while she was recuperating in the hospital from his beatings.

Loh, who has been desperately looking for her children, also told about being given the runaround by the police who did not help her locate the three children despite an interim order from the court in 2019 awarding her custody.

Similarly, her husband’s family also ganged up on her to help him hide the children. They also compelled her to lie to the doctors about her various injuries whenever she sought medical help.

While she had been through an ordeal in the last three years, Loh said the most important thing right now is her children’s well-being.

“When I get back my children, I won’t force them to (leave) Islam,” she told The Malaysian Insight.

“Their welfare and mental wellbeing are most important. If they want to be Muslims, so be it.

“I will even take them to the mosque if that’s what they want. This is a small issue. All I want is to have my children back.”

When the children become adults and choose to revert to their original religion, then that is their choice, too, she said.

The three children were converted by the Hidayah Centre Foundation, without Loh’s consent.

In the case of M. Indira Gandhi, the Federal Court ruled that conversion of minors requires the consent of both parents.

Perlis mufti Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin, however, contended that the state law allowed unilateral conversions, and thus Loh’s children’s conversion – by her ex-husband – were legitimate according to state law.

He said the law was passed in 2016 by the Perlis assembly, allowing those wishing to pass down their Islamic faith to their children to do so with the agreement of either the father or the mother.

Loh is of Chinese-Indian descent and a practising Hindu. Her children were also raised as Hindus. It is unclear if her ex-husband remained a Hindu or has converted to Islam.

‘Children don’t want to live with her’

Loh spent three years from 2019 looking for her children. She was finally reunited with them on Wednesday under a supervised visit by the Perlis religious department at the Kangar police station.

“Before I met them on Wednesday, the children called me and they told me they wanted to stay with me.

“At the police station, however, their tune changed in the presence of the religious department officers, the police and my ex-husband’s family.

“However, my son quietly told me that they had no choice but to stay where they were because their father threatened to commit suicide if the children were returned to her.”

Following the one hour supervised meeting, Loh went to see the children again at a Rumah Sinar Harapan, a home run by the welfare department in Jitra, Kedah.

“The children asked me for watches in their favourite colours and clothes. They also told me that they wanted to come live with me.”

Loh’s account is different from that of the Perlis mufti who said that the children were unwilling to return to her.

“They are lying that the children don’t want to return to me. They have brainwashed the children.

“They told bad things about me to the children and blamed me for their father being in prison.

“They keep using religion to keep the children away from me. Even in Islam, mothers come first.

“Can’t the mufti see that I’m still alive?” Loh said, adding that Asri was also present at the Kangar district police headquarters when she met her children.

Domestic abuse

Loh married Nagashwaran in 2008 and was granted a divorce last year. Loh said her ex-husband was a decent man in the beginning, who held a decent job as an engineering technician at the Kulim Hi-Tech Park.

Things started going downhill in 2017 when her husband started taking drugs and things came to a head in 2019 when a beating by Nagashwaran landed her in Sultan Abdul Halim Hospital in Sg Petani for 10 days and with 21 stitches on her head.

“That week in March, he beat me with a belt, hammer and an iron rod. It came to a point when I had no choice but to ask my mother-in-law to call an ambulance.”

That was not the first beating she had suffered. From 2017 to 2019, Loh allegedly endured numerous beatings by her ex-husband which resulted in several broken bones. Oftentimes, the beating took place in front of the children.

Loh believes this was one of the reasons her ex-husband converted the three children.

“He also converted them so it will make it hard for me to look for them,” she said.

The boy is now named Irfan while the two girls are Dania and Rani.

To make matters worse, since their marriage, Nagashwaran made her sever ties with her family members – two sisters who currently live in Singapore – whom she recently reconnected with.

On numerous occasions, Loh had tried to run away with the children, but on each occasion, she had no choice but to return to him as she had nowhere and no one to turn to.

“I was willing to take the beating because otherwise he would have beaten the children. Staying on with him also meant the children were able to go to school. That was important to me, their education is very important.”

Those 10 days in the hospital, Loh worked up the courage to finally ask for help, by telling the doctors the truth about her predicament.

After being discharged, Loh stayed at an old folks’ home in Bedong, Kedah. Her sister then contacted the Women’s Centre for Change (WCC), a shelter in Penang.

She stayed there until May before going to work in Genting Highlands. When she had saved enough money, Loh engaged a lawyer and filed for divorce and custody.

‘Children stolen from her’

In 2019, she received an interim order and with that went to her mother-in-law’s house to fetch the children, but that ended in a big fight.

Loh sought help from police in Alor Setar who then accompanied her to the home but still, her ex-husband’s family refused to let the children leave with her.

“The police told me they can only accompany me, they cannot go into the house. They told me to go back to court.”

Therein the start of the runaround given to her by the police.

Loh then found out that her sister-in-law had taken her children to Johor. She then filed a police report in Ulu Tiram.

Once again, the police accompanied her to the house but failed to obtain the children.

Following that incident, her in-laws moved out of their home in Alor Setar and from then on were nowhere to be found.

In March 2021, when she received full custody, Loh went to the federal police headquarters in Bukit Aman to seek help. She also lodged another report at the Selayang police station but  still, no one helped her locate the children.

On December 10, 2021, she received a message from Hidayah Centre, which informed her that her children were under their care.

Loh said when she expressed her intention to take the children home with her, they refused to help her.

Then on February 11, she received another Facebook message from Asrama Tahfiz Al-Hambra in Bukit Gelugor.

“The message said to come and collect the children and the sender was my son. He sent me his picture.”

She immediately rushed there only to find the school closed. Shortly after that, she was contacted by the religious authorities who allowed her to meet them on Wednesday.

Since her reunion with the children, Loh has filed a habeas corpus application to compel the authorities to return her children. The application will be heard on Monday at the Kuala Lumpur High Court.

Her only advice to women in a similar situation as her was to leave.

“If a man hits you, leave that environment. Don’t stay just to protect your children,” Loh added.

“If my children are to lead a happy life and succeed, I had to leave that environment.” – February 19, 2022.