Baby's conversion

The Hindu baby's conversion into Islam without her mother's consent is brewing into a potentially explosive situation in Ipoh.

In a press conference, M Indira Gandhi revealed that her husband used to beat her and tried to force her to convert to Islam, but the mother of three refused. One day, she said, her husband came into the house, beat her up and then took away their baby daughter.

Tamil Nesan first reported the story on 4 March. The story was buried on page 6 and headlined Husband beat and tortured me. Wife Indira Gandhi lodges police report. The story focused more on the husband's abuse, and there was no mention of the baby's conversion.

But the next day, Makkal Osai and Malaysia Nanban carried the story on its front page. Eleven-month-old baby converted to Islam, read Makkal Osai's headline; while Malaysia Nanban's report was titled Conversion of child: mother's worst fears come true. Tamil Nesan reported the story on page two as Husband converts baby. It was puzzling why the paper, which first broke the story, did not highlight this fact when it had a chance to.

Makkal Osai reported that the incident has shocked and angered Hindus in Ipoh. "I have lodged three police reports about my husband's beatings and how he is forcing us to convert to Islam. Nothing was done," said Indira.

Accompanying Indira to the press conference were Sungkai state assemblyperson A Sivanesan and Ipoh Barat Member of Parliament M Kulasegaran. The two described the father's act of forcefully taking away the child from the mother and converting her to Islam (without the mother's consent) as "cruel".

They demanded for the father to be arrested immediately, and for the police to launch an investigation into the affair.

(Pic by Doreen Dotto / Wikimedia commons)