The unilateral conversion of minors into Islam by one parent is a thorn in the side of Muslim-Non-Muslim relations.

One reason is that once a person converts or is converted into Islam, reversing that process is very difficult, if not near impossible.

So a minor cannot later after reaching maturity so easily come out of Islam.

There is much contention in the interpretation of the word 'parent' in the Federal Constitution and the Federal Court's decision in the Subashini and T Saravanan case.

In this case the Federal Court decided that the word parent means either mother or father. So either one could convert a minor to Islam.

However the Malaysian Bar is of the opinion that the meaning of "parent" contained in Article 12(4) of the Federal Constitution, read with Article 160 and the Eleventh Schedule of the Federal Constitution, expressly provide that all words appearing in the Federal Constitution which are stated in one gender also include the other gender, and all words in the singular also include the plural.

This is a conundrum that's not about to end any time soon and until it does, Muslim non-Muslim relations continue to be strained.

One recent case is that of Deepa Subramaniam and her estranged husband Viran Nagapan alias Izwan Abdullah ...