Kuala Lumpur: Muslim majority Malaysia will form a committee to look into issues pertaining to conflicts between the civil and Islamic Sharia courts in cases involving Muslim converts and their non-Muslim former spouses.
"The Malaysian government is looking at the issue seriously and the committee will be formed as soon as possible," said Nancy Shukri, the minister in the Prime Minister`s Department.
She will be co-chairing the joint committee with her colleague Jamil Khir Baharom.
She stressed that the welfare of children caught in the legal tussle was a priority.
Legal tussles involving Muslim converts and their non-Muslim former spouses have been an ongoing issue in Malaysia.
The latest case involves ethnic Indian Hindu S Deepa, 30, and her ex-husband who converted to Islam and is now called Izwan Abdullah, 31.
On April 7, the Seremban High Court awarded custody of both their children to Deepa after deciding that the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act had jurisdiction over their civil marriage.
The court also accepted an application by Deepa to annul their marriage because Izwan, had embraced Islam.
Izwan had also converted both his children to Islam without Deepa`s knowledge and had obtained custodial rights of them from the Shariah court.
On April 9, Izwan allegedly abducted his six-year-old son away from Deepa`s house.
Malaysia`s 28 million people include 60 percent Muslim Malays, 25 percent ethnic Chinese who are mostly Buddhist or Christians and 8 percent ethnic Indians who are mostly Hindus.
