Lawyer Sulaiman Abdullah told the High Court today that there is nothing to stop the mother from converting her nine-year-old daughter and five-year-old son to Islam as another civil court had awarded custody of the children to her.
“The two children wanted to be Muslims. Why should we stop them?
“The children testified in court and said they are willing to go to mosque without the mother forcing them, and the daughter said she had decided to wear the tudung,” he said, adding the Shah Alam High Court had granted custody of the siblings to the mother last month.
Sulaiman is representing Federal Territories Islamic Religious Department’s (Jawi) muallaf registrar in a legal challenge filed by a Buddhist father to quash his children’s unilateral conversion to Islam by their mother.
The father is also seeking a declaration that the siblings’ certificates of conversion to Islam are null and void and that they were unlawfully converted.
He claimed that his former wife converted the children to Islam with the intention of getting custody of them.
The names of the former couple and children have been withheld by the court.
Sulaiman also submitted before the court that the muallaf registrar exercised his duty under the Administration of Islamic Laws (Federal Territories) Act in registering the children as Muslims.
“The two children were at Jawi’s office on May 11, 2016 and the officer on duty had explained the meaning of ‘Kalimah Shahadah’ or affirmation of faith to them.”
He said this case was different from the Indira Gandhi case of children being converted to Islam.
Sulaiman said in Indira’s case, her three children were absent before the Perak Islamic Religious Department to recite the affirmation of faith and the conversion was done by her former husband, Ridhuan Abdullah.
K Shanmuga, representing the Buddhist father, maintained that the consent of both father and mother was needed if either of them wanted to convert the children to Islam, based on the Federal Court ruling in Indira’s case.
“In this case, the father was not aware that his children had become Muslims.
“Besides that, the children did not understand the consequences after they recited ‘Kalimah Shahadah’ and they cannot leave Islam without a shariah court order,” he said.
The hearing continues on July 12 before High Court judge Justice Azizah Nawawi.