FLASH NEWS from COMPASS DIRECT
Global News from the Frontlines
**********
JORDANIAN CHRISTIAN WIDOW LOSES CUSTODY OF HER CHILDREN
Case Hinged on Husband's Alleged Conversion to Islam
by Barbara G. Baker
AMMAN, Jordan, April 4 (Compass) -- An Arab Christian mother widowed seven
years ago has been ordered by Jordan's highest court of appeals to
surrender custody of her two minor children to be raised as Muslims.
Siham Suleiman Moussa Qandah's final appeal to the Court of Cassation was
rejected on February 28. Her 13-year-old daughter Rawan and 12-year-old son
Fadi could be taken at any time from their home in Husn, 50 miles north of
Amman.
Written notification of the ruling arrived four days ago at the court where
the case originated, empowering local authorities to immediately transfer
Rawan and Fadi to the guardianship of a Muslim sheikh (mosque prayer
leader) who is Qandah's blood relative. The two have only seen their Muslim
uncle once, years ago, and have never met his wife and children.
The "compelling evidence" presented by a local Muslim court to the Irbid
Civil Court of First Instance which first heard the case was a document
dated three years before Qandah's husband died, declaring that he had
secretly converted to Islam. Under Islamic law, if a father converts to
Islam, his minor children automatically become Muslims.
Dated July 29, 1991, the document was signed by two Muslim witnesses. But
except for a simple scrawled "X," it does not carry the signature of
Qandah's husband, Hussam Rasmi Issa Jibreen. Qandah told Compass that
Jibreen never once indicated to her or any of their relatives that he had
made such a decision, and that he even returned from army duty abroad to
attend the baptism of his second child.
"His funeral was in the church, and he was buried in Husn's Christian
graveyard," she said. "How is it possible that he was deceiving us for
three years?" A soldier in the Jordanian army, Jibreen died in November
1994, just weeks before he was due to return from serving in the U.N.
Peacekeeping Forces in Kosovo.
The Irbid court acknowledged in its ruling that "no one was aware of his
conversion to Islam" in Husn, and that he was given a Christian burial and
death certificate by St. George's Orthodox Church.
But when his widow went some weeks later to apply through Jordanian's civil
courts for legal transfer of her husband's army benefits for herself and
the children, the local sharia court stopped the process, stating that
Jibreen was a Muslim, not a Christian. His conversion also made his
children Muslims, the Islamic court declared, so his children could only
receive his inheritance through a court-designated Muslim guardian.
Shocked, Qandah turned to her family for advice. The youngest in an Arab
Christian family of seven brothers and three sisters, Qandah attends the
Husn Baptist Church where two of her brothers are also members. But they
have one brother who became a Muslim as a teenager, in order to meet the
legal requirements to marry a certain Muslim girl.
"He was following his heart," recalled his sister. "But when the girl's
father rejected his proposal, then it was too late, and he couldn't change
back." Like most Muslim nations, Jordan allows its Christian citizens to
convert legally to Islam, but Muslims cannot change their religious
identity, which is considered an act of apostasy.
Under the common interpretation of Islamic law, anyone who recites the
Muslim creed has automatically converted to Islam, even if the words are
repeated in jest, and once said they cannot be revoked. So Qandah was
advised that under Jordanian law, it was hopeless to contest her husband's
"conversion" certificate filed in the Islamic court.
But rather than accept a court-appointed Muslim guardian for her children,
Qandah decided to ask her brother who had converted to Islam to become
their legal guardian. Long estranged from his family after joining the
Muslim community, her brother had taken the name Abdullah al-Muhtadi (the
converted one). By then married with several children, he had become a
bearded Muslim sheikh (mosque prayer leader).
"He is our blood brother, and we thought this would satisfy the legal
requirements for a Muslim guardian," Qandah said. But a few months after
her brother agreed to be appointed by the court, in April 1995, she began
to regret her decision.
Although Al-Muhtadi received the regular monthly stipends to which Qandah
and her children were entitled, he only forwarded the money to her
sporadically over the next two years.
Then, he began to object that the children were studying at Husn's Roman
Catholic School, where he learned they were registered as Christians and
attending Christian religious instruction, rather than the Islamic classes
required for Muslim students. Demanding that they be transferred to a local
Muslim school and take Muslim instruction, Al-Muhtadi opened a case in May
1998, requesting full custody of the children.
Throughout the three-year civil court battle which followed, Qandah said
her Muslim defense lawyer assured her that she was sure to win permanent
custody of her children.
Under Jordan's dual judicial system, the jurisdiction of religious courts
(sharia for Muslims and ecclesiastical for Christians) is distinct from the
civil courts. But inexplicably, the Orthodox Ecclesiastical Court refused
to comment on Qandah's predicament, issuing a decision on May 5, 2001, to
negate its previous decisions on the case and refer jurisdiction in the
matter to the sharia court.
Six weeks later, the Irbid Civil Court of First Instance ruled that custody
of Qandah's children be handed over to their Muslim uncle.
Dated on June 21, 2001, the judgment faulted Qandah for enrolling her
children in Christian religious classes at school and taking them to church
services with her. In so doing, the decision said, she was "trying to
change their religion" and "insisting that her children are Christian,"
whereas by law they are Muslim.
"The defendant's actions are legal enough reason to devolve her custody,
for fear that the youngsters may embrace other than the Islamic religion,"
the ruling stated.
Seven months later, the Irbid Court of Appeals cited Article 155 of
Jordan's Personal Status Law as a basis for upholding the lower court's
decision, noting a woman guardian was required to be "of age, mature, sane,
and reliable." Although it was a mother's legal right to raise her
children, the January 22 decision noted, Qandah had proved herself "unfit
to be a custodian of her children" by "distancing them from Islamic rituals
and doctrine."
"Her registering them in a Christian school and her insistence to teach
them Christian education and accompanying them to church is contrary to
what trustworthiness and reliability means," the court stated.
In the final judicial appeal heard February 28, the Court of Cassation in
Amman ratified the two previous rulings, ordering Qandah to surrender Rawan
and Fadi to their Muslim guardian. After reviewing the entire case file
last week, one Amman lawyer declared it had been "very badly mishandled" by
the defense counsel, who simply repeated his original arguments in the
subsequent appeal hearings.
"But the case is finished," he said. Despite some "gaps in the legal
process" which could have been addressed earlier, he said, "No legal action
is possible now." It has also been confirmed that the names of both
children are blacklisted on immigration computers, forbidding them to leave
the country.
In the weeks following, Qandah has appealed to Jordan's top judicial
experts and religious leaders, both Muslim and Christian, seeking a
solution to her dilemma. Her choices, she was told, were two: "Either
become a Muslim yourself, or leave the country."
Fighting back weary tears, the 36-year-old mother told Compass she could no
more deny her Christian faith than abandon her children. "Both are
unthinkable," she said.
END
***Photographs of Siham Qandah and her children are available
electronically. Contact Compass Direct for pricing and transmittal.
**********
Global News from the Frontlines
**********
JORDANIAN CHRISTIAN WIDOW LOSES CUSTODY OF HER CHILDREN
Case Hinged on Husband's Alleged Conversion to Islam
by Barbara G. Baker
AMMAN, Jordan, April 4 (Compass) -- An Arab Christian mother widowed seven
years ago has been ordered by Jordan's highest court of appeals to
surrender custody of her two minor children to be raised as Muslims.
Siham Suleiman Moussa Qandah's final appeal to the Court of Cassation was
rejected on February 28. Her 13-year-old daughter Rawan and 12-year-old son
Fadi could be taken at any time from their home in Husn, 50 miles north of
Amman.
Written notification of the ruling arrived four days ago at the court where
the case originated, empowering local authorities to immediately transfer
Rawan and Fadi to the guardianship of a Muslim sheikh (mosque prayer
leader) who is Qandah's blood relative. The two have only seen their Muslim
uncle once, years ago, and have never met his wife and children.
The "compelling evidence" presented by a local Muslim court to the Irbid
Civil Court of First Instance which first heard the case was a document
dated three years before Qandah's husband died, declaring that he had
secretly converted to Islam. Under Islamic law, if a father converts to
Islam, his minor children automatically become Muslims.
Dated July 29, 1991, the document was signed by two Muslim witnesses. But
except for a simple scrawled "X," it does not carry the signature of
Qandah's husband, Hussam Rasmi Issa Jibreen. Qandah told Compass that
Jibreen never once indicated to her or any of their relatives that he had
made such a decision, and that he even returned from army duty abroad to
attend the baptism of his second child.
"His funeral was in the church, and he was buried in Husn's Christian
graveyard," she said. "How is it possible that he was deceiving us for
three years?" A soldier in the Jordanian army, Jibreen died in November
1994, just weeks before he was due to return from serving in the U.N.
Peacekeeping Forces in Kosovo.
The Irbid court acknowledged in its ruling that "no one was aware of his
conversion to Islam" in Husn, and that he was given a Christian burial and
death certificate by St. George's Orthodox Church.
But when his widow went some weeks later to apply through Jordanian's civil
courts for legal transfer of her husband's army benefits for herself and
the children, the local sharia court stopped the process, stating that
Jibreen was a Muslim, not a Christian. His conversion also made his
children Muslims, the Islamic court declared, so his children could only
receive his inheritance through a court-designated Muslim guardian.
Shocked, Qandah turned to her family for advice. The youngest in an Arab
Christian family of seven brothers and three sisters, Qandah attends the
Husn Baptist Church where two of her brothers are also members. But they
have one brother who became a Muslim as a teenager, in order to meet the
legal requirements to marry a certain Muslim girl.
"He was following his heart," recalled his sister. "But when the girl's
father rejected his proposal, then it was too late, and he couldn't change
back." Like most Muslim nations, Jordan allows its Christian citizens to
convert legally to Islam, but Muslims cannot change their religious
identity, which is considered an act of apostasy.
Under the common interpretation of Islamic law, anyone who recites the
Muslim creed has automatically converted to Islam, even if the words are
repeated in jest, and once said they cannot be revoked. So Qandah was
advised that under Jordanian law, it was hopeless to contest her husband's
"conversion" certificate filed in the Islamic court.
But rather than accept a court-appointed Muslim guardian for her children,
Qandah decided to ask her brother who had converted to Islam to become
their legal guardian. Long estranged from his family after joining the
Muslim community, her brother had taken the name Abdullah al-Muhtadi (the
converted one). By then married with several children, he had become a
bearded Muslim sheikh (mosque prayer leader).
"He is our blood brother, and we thought this would satisfy the legal
requirements for a Muslim guardian," Qandah said. But a few months after
her brother agreed to be appointed by the court, in April 1995, she began
to regret her decision.
Although Al-Muhtadi received the regular monthly stipends to which Qandah
and her children were entitled, he only forwarded the money to her
sporadically over the next two years.
Then, he began to object that the children were studying at Husn's Roman
Catholic School, where he learned they were registered as Christians and
attending Christian religious instruction, rather than the Islamic classes
required for Muslim students. Demanding that they be transferred to a local
Muslim school and take Muslim instruction, Al-Muhtadi opened a case in May
1998, requesting full custody of the children.
Throughout the three-year civil court battle which followed, Qandah said
her Muslim defense lawyer assured her that she was sure to win permanent
custody of her children.
Under Jordan's dual judicial system, the jurisdiction of religious courts
(sharia for Muslims and ecclesiastical for Christians) is distinct from the
civil courts. But inexplicably, the Orthodox Ecclesiastical Court refused
to comment on Qandah's predicament, issuing a decision on May 5, 2001, to
negate its previous decisions on the case and refer jurisdiction in the
matter to the sharia court.
Six weeks later, the Irbid Civil Court of First Instance ruled that custody
of Qandah's children be handed over to their Muslim uncle.
Dated on June 21, 2001, the judgment faulted Qandah for enrolling her
children in Christian religious classes at school and taking them to church
services with her. In so doing, the decision said, she was "trying to
change their religion" and "insisting that her children are Christian,"
whereas by law they are Muslim.
"The defendant's actions are legal enough reason to devolve her custody,
for fear that the youngsters may embrace other than the Islamic religion,"
the ruling stated.
Seven months later, the Irbid Court of Appeals cited Article 155 of
Jordan's Personal Status Law as a basis for upholding the lower court's
decision, noting a woman guardian was required to be "of age, mature, sane,
and reliable." Although it was a mother's legal right to raise her
children, the January 22 decision noted, Qandah had proved herself "unfit
to be a custodian of her children" by "distancing them from Islamic rituals
and doctrine."
"Her registering them in a Christian school and her insistence to teach
them Christian education and accompanying them to church is contrary to
what trustworthiness and reliability means," the court stated.
In the final judicial appeal heard February 28, the Court of Cassation in
Amman ratified the two previous rulings, ordering Qandah to surrender Rawan
and Fadi to their Muslim guardian. After reviewing the entire case file
last week, one Amman lawyer declared it had been "very badly mishandled" by
the defense counsel, who simply repeated his original arguments in the
subsequent appeal hearings.
"But the case is finished," he said. Despite some "gaps in the legal
process" which could have been addressed earlier, he said, "No legal action
is possible now." It has also been confirmed that the names of both
children are blacklisted on immigration computers, forbidding them to leave
the country.
In the weeks following, Qandah has appealed to Jordan's top judicial
experts and religious leaders, both Muslim and Christian, seeking a
solution to her dilemma. Her choices, she was told, were two: "Either
become a Muslim yourself, or leave the country."
Fighting back weary tears, the 36-year-old mother told Compass she could no
more deny her Christian faith than abandon her children. "Both are
unthinkable," she said.
END
***Photographs of Siham Qandah and her children are available
electronically. Contact Compass Direct for pricing and transmittal.
**********
