Jordan Court Takes Away Custody of Christian Children from Muslim Uncle

Compass Direct, a news agency focusing on human rights and Christian persecution, reported that a Jordanian Christian widow has been granted the custody of her two Christian children by the Amman Islamic court after their Muslim uncle had taken care of them for 7 years.

Siham Qandah appealed to the Amman Islamic Court for the legal guardianship of her two children after she discovered that her Muslim brother, Abdullah al-Muhtadi, had withdrawn their monthly benefits while he was taking care of them. At a hearing on April 12, Judge Mahmud Zghl ruled in favour of Qandah and ordered al-Muhtadi to repay mis-spent amounts taken from the children’s trust fund.

In 30 days, if al-Muhtadi does not appeal, Qandah will be formally appointed as the new custodian of her daughter Rawan, 16 and son Fadi, 15.

Compass Direct reported that Qandah’s husband died while serving with the UN in Kosovo in 1994. But when she went to claim her children’s army orphan benefits, a local court produced an unsigned "conversion" certificate, claiming that her Christian husband had secretly converted to Islam three years before his death.

According to Islamic law, the two children automatically became Muslims too. In order to maintain the army orphan benefits for her children Qandah nominated her brother (who converted to Islam as a teenager) to serve as their legal Muslim guardian, Compass Direct said.

In 1998, her brother applied for full custody of the two children, objecting to the children being brought up as Christians. Later, he even withdrew the monthly benefits from the two children and later withdrew nearly half of their UN-allocated trust funds by getting signed approvals from senior judges.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), a UK-based human right group, was greatly concerned with the Christian widow’s case. CSW wrote a letter to King Abdullah of Jordan to urge him to review the case and many CSW supporters have been praying for her over the last few years.

A statement from CSW reads, "The case breaches Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which protects the liberty of parents and legal guardians to ensure the religious and moral education of their children is in conformity with their own conviction and Article 9 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child which stipulates that children shall not be separated from their parents against their will except where such separation is necessary for the best interests of the child."

Mervyn Thomas, Chief Executive of CSW rejoiced the success of Qandah. However, he said, "...we remain deeply concerned that even after this victory, Siham is still unable to be her children’s legal guardian, due to a previous ruling that deemed her to be an unfit custodian due to her decision to continue raising them as Christians. CSW strongly condemns the fact that religious affiliation was given precedence over the best interests of the children in deciding a custody case."

Currently, Qandah and her children live in Husn, northern Jordan, where they are members of Husn Baptist Church.