The case has become a focal point of tensions over the widening role of Islam, which critics say is threatening Malaysia’s secular core and exacerbating fraught relations between ethnic Malays, who are Muslims, and minority Chinese and Indians.
Subramaniam’s estranged spouse converted from Hinduism to Islam in 2012, after their nine-year marriage broke down, taking the name Izwan Abdullah.
He then converted Mithran and their now eight-year-old daughter to Islam, giving him a strong case under Islamic law, or shariah, to take over their custody – which a shariah court granted him five months later. [Reuters] Read more
