KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 7 ― Negri Sembilan's proposal to make divorce compulsory prior to a spouse's unilateral conversion to Islam is a “very practical solution” to deal with potential child custody battles across the country's civil and Shariah courts, Khairy Jamaluddin said today.

The youth and sports minister said there are suspicions that some converts may have embraced Islam in the hope of gaining custody of their children from their non-convert spouse.

“In our view, the change of religion... while we cannot question the intent, we suspect in some of these cases, the conversion took place because of custodial issues,” he told a news conference.

“So this can overcome that. There won't be jurisdictional problems between the civil courts and shariah courts. This is clear.”

On Tuesday, Negri Sembilan Mentri Besar Datuk Mohamad Hasan said his administration intends to amend state laws governing Islam to make it compulsory for non-Muslims seeking to convert to Islam to first settle their family matters, including divorcing their spouses who refuse to follow the conversion.

He was quoted by English daily New Straits Times as saying that it becomes the responsibility of the prospective convert to divorce the spouse, claiming that Islam forbids a Muslim from living with a non-Muslim spouse.

The proposal has since received support from legal experts and opposition lawmakers, though some lawyers warned that forcing a divorce could be in conflict with Article 11 of the Federal Constitution that safeguards freedom of religion.

Khairy today echoed Mohamad's position that the proposal was one way to protect the sanctity of Islam, while also making sure that converts are fair to their families.

“Whether (they) divorce or if they want to convert, they have to inform the spouse that they want to convert.

“Sometimes they convert in secret, and after that they take the children with the hope of securing custody of the children,” the Rembau MP said.

Last year saw two child custody tussles involving non-Muslims, including one in Negri Sembilan, which were brought to the Shariah courts instead after the fathers embraced Islam and unilaterally converted the children without the mothers’ knowledge.

Malaysia practices a dual track legal system, with the Shariah court set up specifically to deal with the matters concerning Muslims such as marriage and inheritance.