Court grants Hindu mum custody of Muslim kids
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A Malaysian court granted a Hindu mother custody of her two children who were converted to Islam by their Muslim father, in a ruling that conflicts with a sharia court's decision, local media reported yesterday.
Seremban High Court also allowed Deepa Subramaniam’s application to dissolve her marriage to Izwan Abdullah as “it was a civil union and did not come under sharia law”, according to the Malay Mail.
Subramaniam, 30, a clerk, married Abdullah, 30, a lorry driver, in 2004. Abdullah was previously known as Viran Nagapan before his conversion to Islam in 2012. Subramaniam said Abdullah abandoned the family in 2011, and in April 2013 he took their children, aged six and nine, from school and converted both to Islam without her knowledge. A sharia court granted custody of the children to Abdullah last year.
Subramaniam then went to the civil court to quash the sharia court order. She has another application pending in court to quash the children’s conversion, which she argues is “illegal and unconstitutional”.
Malaysia has a dual-track legal system with separate civil and sharia courts, but it has not been decided which court’s rulings take precedence. The case has heightened tensions between Muslims and minority non-Muslims. The latter feel their rights have been undermined as the country heads towards greater Islamisation.
Muslims make up more than 60 per cent of the country’s population of 28 million.
