CHILDREN'S RELIGION DECIDED

KUALA LUMPUR, April 23 (Bernama)-- The Cabinet has decided that a child's
religion must be in accordance with the common religion at the time of marriage
between the parents if there is any dispute regarding the issue.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz said
the decision was one of the long-term solutions discussed by the Cabinet
Wednesday, as many more cases like that of Mohd Ridzuan Abdullah and his wife,
Indra Gandhi, were expected in the future.

Mohd Ridzuan, 40, or Patmanathan a/l Krishnan, 40, a Muslim convert who used
to be a Hindu, was reported to have converted his children -- Tevi Darsiny, 12,
Karan Dinesh, 11, and Prasana Diksa, 1 -- to Islam on April 12 and applied for
custody at the Syariah Court although their mother is still a Hindu.

"Conversion must not be used as a ground to automatically dissolve a
marriage or to get custody of children," Mohamed Nazri told a news conference
here Thursday.

He said any individual who wanted to convert to another religion must
resolve all problems regarding his responsibilities before converting, to avoid
innocent parties, especially the children, becoming victims.

He said the Cabinet also decided that if a marriage was done under the
civil court, it could only be dissolved under the civil law.

"Do not use religion, for instance Islam, as a tool to run away from
responsibility or to escape from a marriage, as this will bring a bad name to
the religion," he said.

He said the Cabinet also agreed that the relevant date of application of the
Islamic law to any Islam converts was the person's conversion date.

To give effect to the decision, the Attorney-General's chabers would be
asked to look into all relevant laws that needed to be amended, excluding the
syariah law which were under the power of the rulers.

As a short-term resort in Mohd Ridzuan's case, Mohamed Nazri said, he had
asked the minister in charge of religious affairs in the Prime Minister's
Department, senator Jamil Khir Baharom, to meet Mohd Ridzuan to counsel him.
-- BERNAMA