Unilateral Conversion Loh S Appeal Hearing Moved To Next Year

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The Court of Appeal has rescheduled the hearing of single mother Loh Siew Hong’s appeal to quash the unilateral Islamic conversion of her three children to Jan 10 next year.
The new date was set following case management of the matter today. The appeal hearing was initially fixed for today before it was vacated.
Loh’s (above) counsel Gunamalar Jorindanjn confirmed the rescheduling after the online case management.
The 35-year-old single mother is appealing against the Kuala Lumpur High Court decision on May 11 which dismissed her judicial review over the religious status of her three children - twin daughters aged 15 and an 11-year-old boy.
In dismissing Loh’s judicial review, High Court judge Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh ruled that the children had been validly converted to Islam in accordance with Perlis Islamic state law, with the state Islamic authorities’ affidavit confirming that the children recited the kalimah syahadah (Islamic recitation to convert to Islam) in 2020.
The judge pointed out that an affidavit by Perlis Islamic Religious and Malay Customs Council (Maip) CEO Mohd Nazim Mohd Noor stated that the children showed intent via their actions to continue to be in Islam even when they were under the custody of Loh last year.
Farid noted Nazim’s affidavit showing that the children as of Feb 22 last year were still practising Islam, performing the dawn prayer, and one of them even wanted to be a syariah lawyer.
The judge said Loh’s affidavit denying Nazim’s assertion amounted to bare denial and that the single mother did not deny the affirmative assertion that the children continued to profess Islam while under her custody.
Farid said even if the certificates of conversion were not conclusive proof in view of their unilateral nature, the “force of evidence” showed that the three children continued to practise Islam.
Father converted kids while mum in hospital
In the divorce petition, Loh was granted sole custody, care, and control over the children from former husband and Muslim convert Muhammad Nagahswaran Muniandy, 35, in 2021.
However, in 2019, it was reported that the father took the three children away while Loh was hospitalised with injuries - which she alleged he had inflicted.
Muhammad Nagahswaran MuniandyIt was contended that Muhammad on July 7, 2020, embraced Islam and converted the three children to the faith without Loh's consent.
On Feb 21 last year, Loh’s children, who were under the care of the Social Welfare Department, were released to their mother after the High Court allowed her habeas corpus application.
Recently, the Kuala Lumpur family civil court revealed that Loh’s children do not wish to be Muslims, and dismissed an application by Maips to provide Islamic education to the children.
Maips’ application was to vary the custody order granted to Loh so that the Perlis state Islamic body could provide Islamic education to the children. - Mkini

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