pressure from the royal family and international human rights groups, International Christian Concern (ICC) said. For several years Siham Qandah has been trying to remove the guardianship of her estranged brother, Al-Muhtadi, who converted to Islam as a teenager. He was awarded custody over her daughter Rawan, 16, and son Fadi, 14, in 2001, after agreeing to act as the children’s financial guardian and initiating a legal battle.
A court reportedly confirmed the ruling in June 2002, "on grounds that the children were legally Muslims like their (late) father and must be brought up as such."
In 1994 a Shar’ia law court reportedly declared that Qandah’s husband, Hussam Jibreen, had converted to Islam before he died while serving in the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Serbia’s troubled province of Kosovo.
ISLAMIC LAW
Under Islamic law his minor children automatically became Muslims and were therefore only able to receive their inheritance through a Muslim guardian. While widow Qandah initially agreed with the arrangement, she began to object after her estranged brother did not forward the inheritance and refused to accept their Christian upbringing and attendance at the local Roman Catholic School, religious rights groups said.
Despite alleged evidence that he had withdrawn nearly 12,000 Jordanian dinars ($17,650) from their U.N.-allocated trust funds, a lower court initially refused to return custody to the mother. But under pressure the Supreme Court agreed to hear her appeal after the case reportedly came to the attention of several members of the Jordanian royal family, who pledged that Qandah will not lose her children or be sent to jail.
PERSECUTED CHRISTIANS
ICC, which supports persecuted Christians, said the Supreme Islamic Court of Jordan in Amman had ordered "a police escort" if he failed to attend as during previous scheduled hearings in September. It was not clear Sunday, October 10, how the court would rule. The case has been closely watched by the Christian community, amid concern about growing Muslim influence in the region.
While Jordan king Abdullah II and the government say they encourage Christian tourism to biblical sites, Church leaders have told BosNewsLife they face an uphill battle to remain strong amid an increasing Muslim population in the kingdom of close to five million people.
Christians make up roughly 6 percent of Jordanians, according to Catholic estimates.
