Lawyer Nizam Bashir said the 46-year-old man merely played the role of an “observer” in the two children’s lives and had no right to be consulted in their upbringing.
“He has the right to know what is happening in their lives as well as to love and support them.
“But the children’s upbringing and how they live should be decided by their mother who has full custodial rights from the court,” he said.
Nizam is representing the Federal Territories Islamic Religious Department’s (Jawi) registrar for new converts in a legal challenge filed by the father to quash his two children’s unilateral conversion to Islam by their mother.
The father is also seeking a declaration that the children’s 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 former couple divorced in April this year and the mother was awarded full custody of the children by the Shah Alam High Court.
Nizam said since the mother had full custody, no one, including the state or her former spouse, could question what kind of lives she provided for the children.
“The court, in granting custody, presumed she is acting in the children’s best interest.
“The father’s objection to the conversion has been rendered moot after the court’s custody order,” he said.
Meanwhile, lawyer K Shanmuga, representing the father, said a single parent had a constitutional right over his or her children’s lives.
“The right should not be limited by his current role with only visitation access,” he added.
“Obviously he was not consulted nor had he given his consent to his children embracing Islam.”
Shanmuga also said the court should not place too much weight on statements by the children to the Shah Alam court that they were “attracted” to Islam.
“They were three and seven years old, too young to understand and utter the affirmation of faith,” he said.
High Court judge Azizah Nawawi set Oct 16 to deliver her decision.
Muslim convert mum has right to convert her kids, court told