Malaysia Hindu wins custody row with Muslim spouse

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – A Malaysian court Thursday granted an ethnic Indian woman custody of her child in a bitter dispute with her Muslim-convert husband, in a ruling that could ease religious minorities' worries about their legal rights.

Malaysia has a two-tier court system for family matters _ secular courts for non-Muslims, Shariah, or Islamic, courts for Muslims. But minority Hindus, Christians and Buddhists complain that cases that also involve a member of the country's Muslim majority are usually sent to Shariah courts, where the decisions typically go against the non-Muslims.

On Thursday, the secular High Court overruled a Shariah ruling and ordered that 2-year-old Prasana Diksa be handed back immediately to her mother, M. Indira Gandhi, said her lawyer, M. Kulasegaran.

The fact that the secular court even took the case was a breakthrough and could set a precedent across Malaysia, said another of her lawyers, A. Sivanesan.

"This is a landmark ruling. In the past, if one party is a Muslim, the civil court would have shut its door and refuse to hear the case. This is a breakthrough," Sivanesan said.

Gandhi's husband embraced Islam in March 2009 without her knowledge. He then took their youngest child away, and later allegedly used documents to convert all three of their children to Islam without her consent. However, the elder two children, aged 12 and 13, have remained with their mother throughout the dispute.

Ghandi's husband, Muhammad Riduan Abdullah, successfully sought custody of the three children in the Perak Islamic Shariah court, but Ghandi challenged the conversions and filed a lawsuit seeking custody in civil court.

"The judge said it is in the family's best interest that the toddler be returned to Gandhi as the two older children are with her," Kulasegaran said.

He said Justice Wan Afrah Wan Ibrahim also shot down arguments by lawyers from the state religious department that he has no jurisdiction to hear the case because it involved a Muslim. The judge declared that the civil court can hear such grievances because non-Muslims cannot seek remedy in Shariah courts, the lawyer said.

The conversion of children has been the subject of growing legal challenges by non-Muslims, who say they face discrimination by Muslims who comprise nearly two-thirds of Malaysia's population and dominate the government.

Perak Islamic authorities could not immediately be reached for comment on Gandhi's case.

Sivanesan said the court granted Muhammad Riduan the right to visit the children once a week. It also fixed April 2 to hear a bid by Gandhi to contest her husband's conversion of their children to Islam, he said.

Gandhi will lodge a complain with police if he refuses to hand over the 2-year-old, the lawyer added.

The government has pledged to tackle legal ambiguities related to religious conversions. Authorities recently said minors can no longer be converted without both parents' consent, but the decision has not been made legally binding.

In a high-profile case in 2007, a Hindu woman failed to persuade the civil court to bar her husband, who had embraced Islam, from converting their sons.-AP