KUALA LUMPUR: Citing having been granted sole custody of her three children since 2019 after her divorce, single mother Loh Siew Hong says her permission should have been taken before converting them to Islam.

       Loh, 34, said in her divorce petition, she was granted sole custody, care and control over her three children - 14-year-old twin girls and a 10-year-old boy.

       "My ex-husband converted them in 2020, which does not make sense as he did not have custody of them to do so," she said when contacted.

       Loh said she has just signed an affidavit pertaining to the matter.

       She is now seeking a declaration that her ex-husband was legally unfit to convert them to Islam.

       An online portal reported that she is asking for a declaration that a provision in the Perlis state enactment that allows for a parent to unilaterally convert minor children is unconstitutional.

       She also wants a declaration that her twin daughters and son are of the Hindu faith.

       In her judicial review application, filed at the High Court registry in Kuala Lumpur on Friday (March 25), Loh said as minors, they were legally incapable to embrace Islam without her consent.

       She has named the Registrar of Mualaf, the Religious and Malay Customs Council of Perlis, state mufti Datuk Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin and the state government as respondents.

       Loh also wants an order of certiorari to quash the registration of conversion dated July 7, 2020 issued by the registrar.

       She also wants any official registration that her children had embraced Islam to be removed from the records of the authorities.

       The names of the children can no longer be identified due to a gag order issued by the High Court here last week against the publication of the names and photos of Loh’s children.

       On Feb 21, the three siblings who were under the care of the Social Welfare Department were released to Loh after the High Court allowed the habeas corpus application that she had filed.

       On Feb 21, Loh was granted full custody of her children after the Kuala Lumpur High Court allowed Loh’s habeas corpus application and ordered her children to be released from the Social Welfare Department’s care and back into her custody.

       After her divorce in 2019, she was granted sole custody of the children by the High Court.

       However, Loh, an alleged domestic violence victim, lost contact with her children for three years.

       He ex-husband, an Indian-Muslim convert, took the children to Perlis and arranged for them to be converted to Islam.

       He has since been arrested for a drug offence and is now in prison in Kelantan.