Tuesday, April 12, 2005

'I AM SO HAPPY, I AM SPEECHLESS'
Christian Widow Wins Custody Fight For Kids In Jordan

OPEN DOORS USA
Jerry Dykstra, Media Relations Coordinator
Phone: 616-915-4117
E-mail: JerryD@odusa.org

SANTA ANA, CA (ANS) -- According to Compass Direct, Amman court of Islamic law ruled in favor of Jordanian Christian widow Siham Qandah today, revoking the legal guardianship of her children’s Muslim uncle and ordering him to repay misspent funds withdrawn from their orphan trust accounts.

Judge Mahmud Zghl handed down his verdict in Amman’s Al-Abdali Sharia Court against Abdullah al-Muhtadi, who has been fighting a seven-year legal battle to wrest custody of his minor niece and nephew from their Christian mother, according to Compass.

But in the pending appeals case concluded today, al-Muhtadi was the defendant, facing allegations of mishandling the finances of his Christian sister’s two children. Hearings on the case have dragged on since last August, when the Supreme Islamic Court of Jordan ordered a final review of the case.

After the guardian’s repeated failure to appear for scheduled court sessions over the past eight months, he was reportedly forced to answer the judge’s summons after normal court hours ended this afternoon.

Al-Muhtadi proved unable to provide the court with documented evidence of his claimed expenditure of 750 Jordanian dinars ($1,100) to buy the children a refrigerator. Accordingly, Judge Zghl removed him from his court-designated guardianship, and ordered him to pay back this amount to his wards’ trust fund, reports Compass.

The former guardian has the right to appeal the judgment within 30 days.

“I still can’t believe it!” Qandah told Compass today, laughing and crying. “I am so happy, I am just speechless. I can’t even describe my emotions.” Although she had already called her children from Amman, she said she could not wait to travel back home to Husn and tell them in person.

Dr. Carl Moeller, President of Open Doors USA, says: “This is an awesome answer to prayer. Open Doors has been appealing for prayers and letters on her behalf for years. This is another instance where the power of consistent prayer has made a difference in the lives of persecuted Christians around the world.”

Qandah’s daughter Rawan and son Fadi, now 16 and 15, lost their father 11 years ago when he died as a soldier in the U.N. peacekeeping forces in Kosovo. But when their mother went to claim their 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, says Compass.

The certificate could not be contested under Islamic law, so Qandah was forced to find a Muslim to handle financial matters for the children. Despite their baptism as Christians, both were automatically declared Muslims under the dictums of Islamic law. Al-Muhtadi, the widow’s estranged brother who had converted to Islam as a teenager, agreed to serve as their legal Muslim guardian.

But over the next few years, he began pocketing some of the children’s monthly benefits, and later withdrew nearly half of their U.N.-allocated trust funds by obtaining signed approvals from highly placed Islamic court judges.

Then in 1998, he filed suit to take custody of the children away from their Christian mother in order to raise them as Muslims. After a four-year court battle, Jordan’s Supreme Islamic Court ruled in his favor, ordering Qandah to give her children over to al-Muhtadi’s custody.

Over the past three years, Qandah has been forced into hiding several times to avoid possible arrest and separation from her children who had been blacklisted from leaving Jordan during the custody battle, reports Compass.

But after Qandah’s dilemma attracted international press coverage, King Abdullah II and other members of the Jordanian royal family began to monitor judicial handling of the case, pledging that the children would not be taken away from their mother.

An estimated 200 million Christians worldwide suffer interrogation, arrest and even death for their faith in Christ, with another 200 to 400 million facing discrimination and alienation. Open Doors, celebrating 50 years of service to the Persecuted Christians in 2005, serves and strengthens the Persecuted Church in the world's most difficult areas through Bible and Christian literature distribution, leadership training and assistance, Christian community development, prayer and presence ministry and advocacy on behalf of suffering believers. To partner with Open Doors, call toll free at 888-5-BIBLE-5 (524-2535) or go to our USA web site at www.odusa.org. To request a complimentary six-month subscription to our monthly newsletter Frontline Faith, call 888-5-BIBLE-5 or register on-line.

(For a picture or to set up an interview on this release, contact Jerry Dykstra at 616-915-4117).