Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - A prominent Malaysian lawyer Wednesday said he was working to free a Muslim woman forcibly separated by Islamic authorities from her Hindu husband in a case that has sparked outrage.
Raimah Bibi Noordin and her five young Hindu children were taken from their home two weeks ago by religious officials who said she was a Muslim.
Under Malaysian laws, Muslims can only be married to other Muslims, forcing non-Muslims to convert for marriage.
Lawyer Karpal Singh said he was filing an application Thursday with a high court to free Raimah, 40, and her children, whom he said are being held in an ethnic Malay Muslim village.
"The wife and children are placed in a Malay majority area and directed not to get out. This is illegal detention," he told AFP.
"This is scandalous. You cannot lock up people. Things are getting out of hand," said Karpal, also a lawmaker and deputy chairman of the opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP).
The DAP has said that Raimah, an ethnic Indian, was adopted by an Indian Muslim family but is a practising Hindu and married her Indian husband P. Marimuthu under Hindu rites.
Raimah's case came amid rising religious tensions in Malaysia, where non-Muslims say their rights are being trampled on, and a number of Muslims are in legal battles for the right to convert out of Islam.
Rights groups Wednesday condemned the actions of the Islamic authorities, saying they breached the country's constitution, which guarantees freedom of religious practice.
"As a Muslim I am frustrated by their action. There is nothing in Islam that says you can do this," rights activist Latifah Koya told AFP.
"It is creating bad-blood among the various races in multi-racial Malaysia," she said.
S. Arutchelvan, of the rights group Voice of the Malaysian People, called on religious authorities to stay out of domestic issues.
"Their action to break-up a family is high-handed and provocative," he said.