Loh Siew Hong continues legal challenge against three kids’ unilateral conversion to Islam
KUALA LUMPUR, May 15 — Hindu mother Loh Siew Hong today continued pursuing her challenge against the unilateral conversion of her three children to Islam, by filing an appeal at the Court of Appeal.
When contacted, Loh’s lawyer A. Srimurugan told Malay Mail the appeal was filed this morning, and that no case management dates had been fixed yet.
Srimurugan also said he will be writing to the Court of Appeal to seek earlier court dates.
In her notice of appeal filed today, Loh told the Court of Appeal that she was appealing the entire decision by the High Court on May 11, which rejected her challenge against her ex-husband’s unilateral conversion of their three children to Islam.
On May 11, High Court judge Datuk Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh dismissed Loh's judicial review application, ruling that the Perlis Registrar of Mualaf's certificates of conversion — which were issued in 2020 in relation to the three children — are "conclusive proof" of their conversion to Islam.
The High Court also said there was no evidence that Loh's three children had reverted to the Hindu religion or that they had stopped professing the religion of Islam after they came back under Loh's care, and decided that their status quo — as Muslims — should remain to safeguard their welfare as children.
On March 25, 2022, Loh had filed for judicial review against four respondents, namely the Perlis Registrar of Mualaf or the Perlis State Registrar of Converts, Perlis Islamic Religious and Malay Customs Council, Perlis Mufti Datuk Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin and the Perlis state government.
Loh had sought for nine court orders, including court declarations that her three children are Hindus and to declare that they lack legal capacity — as children — to convert to Islam without her consent.
She also sought for the court to declare that her Muslim convert ex-husband lacks legal capacity to allow the Perlis registrar of Muslim converts to register the trio as Muslim converts without Loh's consent.
Among other things, she had also sought court orders from the High Court to revoke the declaration of conversion to Islam issued in 2020 by the Perlis registrar of Muslim converts in the three children's names, and to either quash or stop the issuance of conversion to Islam cards for the trio — depending on whether such cards had been issued.
Loh had also sought for the High Court to order the removal or cancellation of the three children's names in the Perlis registry of Muslim converts, and a declaration that a Perlis state law — which was amended in 2016 to enable a child to be registered as a Muslim convert without both parents' consent — is unconstitutional and invalid.
The three children were born to Loh and her ex-husband Nagahswaran Muniandy in a civil marriage, or when the couple were both non-Muslims.
The ex-husband had in 2019 took the three children away while Loh was hospitalised with injuries which she claimed he had inflicted.
The ex-husband on July 7, 2020 converted to Islam, and brought the three children — when they were aged between nine to 11 — to also be converted to Islam without Loh's consent.
In 2021, the couple's divorce was finalised and the High Court granted Loh full and sole custody of the three children.
But Loh was only reunited with her three children when the High Court on February 21, 2022 ordered the trio's immediate release from alleged unlawful detention.
