Musa Awang, president of the Malaysian Shariah Lawyers Association, said the law only provides for the non-converting spouse to dissolve the marriage within three months of the conversion.

He said the provision was unfair to the spouse who converted, by automatically being deprived of locus standi to petition for dissolution of the marriage.

“The law must be amended in such a way as to grant the converting spouse to also file the joint petition to annul his or her marriage. Only then would this be a win-win solution,” Musa told Malay Mail Online.

The government has announced plans to amend the law on civil marriages so that civil courts will have precedence to decide on child custody and divorce involving those who convert to Islam after marriage.

The amendment would end the current overlap of jurisdiction between the civil and shariah courts.

Musa urged the government to maintain the right of shariah courts to annul a Muslim convert’s civil previous marriage. Under the Islamic Family Law Act, conversion does not automatically dissolve a civil marriage until confirmed by the shariah court.

This provision would be helpful if a non-converting spouse refuses to file a petition to annul the civil union, while the Muslim convert spouse has done everything needed to have the marriage annulled, he said.

A shariah court can only annul a civil marriage if the Muslim convert has proven that all attempts had already been made to have the marriage dissolved.

The government’s decision to amend the laws on child custody come after a seven-year hiatus since 2008, when the Cabinet decided to bar the unilateral conversion of children. The proposed amendments were after intervention by the Rulers’ Conference hours before they could be tabled in Parliament.

Amendments were proposed to three laws: the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act 1976, the Islamic Family Law (Federal Territories) Act 1984 and the Administration of Islamic Law (Federal Territories) Act 1993.

The amendments would ensure that disputes over child support, custody and such matters would be determined by the court in which the marriage had been registered.