Lee Chang Yong, in his affidavit dated June 14 claimed that his estranged wife, Teng Wai Yee was using an “impure” tactic to obtain his daughter and son’s custody from him. “I believe that she unilaterally converted our children and had ‘planned’ when she converted to Islam last year,” he said.

“She also used a false address to register for the children’s conversion so that she could do it secretly and in a mala fide way,” he added. “The address on the siblings’ conversion certificates was not the same as Teng’s address or my home address.”

The 46 year-old businessman said in the affidavit that he found out that Teng, who is also known as Aleena Abdullah, did not send the children to school on May 11, and claimed she took them to recite the “Kalimah Shahadah” (affirmation of faith) to convert them to Islam.

“She did not reply to my messages since 8.55 am, and only got back to me in the afternoon, stating they were in school and without much elaboration,” he said.

Lee only found out from his daughter on that day his wife converted the duo. “She told me that her mother took them to an office where they had to affix their thumbprints.”

“She disclosed that she was not aware of what happened,” he said. “My three year-old son was unaware of the situation too.”

Lee, continuing, further said that his daughter told him a man and her mother persuaded her to read a sentence in Malay that she did not understand but it had the word “Allah”. “She said her mother did not explain to her what happened when her thumbprint was being taken that day.”

“I only got to know a few weeks later when she announced that our daughter was Muslim.”

Previously in February, Lee alleged that his wife had attempted to influence the siblings to convert.

“She took our children to the mosque to teach them about Islam,” he said.

Lee said he realized that Teng was being “unusual” since August last year when she started to refuse non-halal food or visit the temple. “She then admitted to me in October that she had been attending night classes for ‘muallaf’ (converts) and had the intention to convert to Islam as she no longer loved me. She was willing to give up custody of the children.”

The estranged couple had filed a joint divorce petition on December 17 but they could not agree on the conditions of the custody of the children as well as matrimonial and asset division.

The petition was set aside when she embraced Islam on December 29 last year.

Lee then filed a new divorce petition on May 11, under Section 53 of the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act, which states that if anyone in a marriage became Muslim, the other party who is non-Muslim can file to dissolve their marriage.

He also filed a judicial review on June 14 to challenge his children’s conversion.