MP SPEAKS I would like to congratulate the Negri Sembilan Islamic Affairs Council (Mains) for the bold step to put a stop to many of the post conversion issues that has been tearing our society apart.
Of course, this will not solve all related issues but it is a good beginning.
I do hope Perkasa, Isma, Umno, Muslim NGOs, and PAS will support Mains.
By right, the government should have amended the Law Reform (Marriage & Divorce) Act 1976 to allow the converted spouse to file for divorce in the civil court.
I still don't understand why the rights of a spouse have been denied when he changed his religion.
By allowing him or her to do so, the court can settle the issues related to their marriage.
When the civil law does not allow the spouse who converted to Islam to apply to dissolve their marriage, then the converted Muslim spouse will have to apply for his rights in the syariah court.
The government should take the blame for the past discords when the government did not table any amendment to the Law Reform (Marriage & Divorce) Act.
If we hold on to the principle that if one is married under civil law, then divorce should take place in the civil court and if the marriage has taken place under the syariah law, then divorce must be settled in the syariah courts.
Issues after conversion
Hence spouses who want to return to their religion after getting married in the syariah law, must also accept that they must settle their claims in the syariah law and not use the excuse ‘I am not a Muslim anymore and hence the syariah law does not apply to me and I want to stake my claims in the civil courts’.
You cannot have your cake and eat it too.
Since the federal government does not want to amend the Law Reform (Marriage & Divorce) Act, then the state religious departments must amend their enactments, like what Mains did.
With regards to the custody of children, in Islamic law, the general rule is mothers should get the custody of their children under seven years and fathers should be responsible for their maintenance.
Children above seven can make their choice. This should also apply even if one spouse has converted to Islam and the other remains a non-Muslim.
Fathers should have the right and in fact it is obligatory on them, to visit their children when their wives have custody.
In the event of pending court settlements, the rule should stay: below seven years, the custody should go to the mother.
Declare conversion to avoid dispute
Of course, other details will have to be ironed out. Any child-snatching should be made a crime. This is happening rampantly even among estranged or divorced Muslim couples.
Children below seven years and babies being snatched or kidnapped from their mothers and the police will not do anything, just because the father has filed for the custody of the child. While waiting for the case to be heard in court, the mother is not allowed access to the child and the child suffers.
Body-snatching occurs when the conversion to Islam is secretive, and the spouse and family are in the dark and only the Jabatan Agama Islam (state) has the records.
I wholeheartedly agree that one should declare one's conversion, whatever the consequence. I do not blame the religious departments when they want to carry out their obligations to a fellow Muslim i.e giving a Muslim burial rights.
However, in the past, this has caused a lot of heartache and anger in the family, and religious and racial frictions when they were denied their knowledge of the conversion earlier on.
So, the declaration has to be done in a transparent manner. If the family abandons the converted spouse and refuses to care for him or her (in the case of the elderly), it is the duty of the religious authorities to find a home and people to care for the convert.*
DR SITI MARIAH MAHMUD is the MP for Kota Raja.
*Note: The above is my personal opinion and has nothing to do with PAS.
