The case of the Coptic child, Shenouda, has sparked controversy in Egypt and opened a thorny file on the issue of adoption and change of religion.
In a happy ending to the story of the child, Shenouda, who occupied Egypt, and after consulting the Mufti, the child was temporarily handed over to his adoptive mother and returned to his Coptic religion.
And the North Cairo Prosecution Office ordered the college to hand over the child, “Shenouda”, temporarily to Mrs. Amal Ibrahim, who found him as a trusted parent after she took a pledge to take good care of him, preserve him and not expose him to danger, and assigned her to complete the procedures for sponsoring him according to the alternative families system.
This came after the Public Prosecution sought the opinion of the Grand Mufti of the Republic on the child’s religion in light of the circumstances of the investigation, and he issued a fatwa stating that the child follows the religion of the Christian family that found him according to detailed jurisprudential opinions.
child Shenouda
The Public Prosecution commissioned the Child Helpline of the National Council for Motherhood and Childhood to take legal measures towards renaming the child with a Christian legal quaternary name for a Christian legal father and mother in light of the findings of the investigations, which included the fatwa of the Mufti declaring the child to be affiliated with the religion of the people who found him.
The case of the Coptic child, Shenouda, who became a Muslim by law, has sparked controversy in Egypt during the past few days, and opened a thorny file on the issue of adoption and change of religion.
The story topped the local media again after the Administrative Court ruled that it lacks jurisdiction and rejected the lawsuit filed by the lawyer of the adoptive child’s family by embracing him, so that the little boy moved to an orphanage, where he changed his name to Youssef and became a Muslim.
The story began in the year 2018, when the Coptic woman, Amal Fikry, who was denied childbearing and motherhood, found a baby inside an Egyptian church in the Al-Zawiya Al-Hamra area, east of Cairo, to decide with her husband to embrace and adopt the infant.
Indeed, he lived with her throughout that period, and she called him Shenouda Farouk Fawzi Boulos.
Things went smoothly, and the family lived happily with the child among them, until one of the Coptic husband’s relatives intervened, fearing that the family’s inheritance would pass to the new child and deprive the rest of the family of it.
The husband’s relative informed the authorities that the family had found the infant outside the church, and filed a lawsuit to deprive the family of the child and to place him in an orphanage, which is what actually happened.
child Shenouda
In view of this, and after the prosecution’s decision to place Shenouda in a care home, his name was changed to Youssef Abdullah Muhammad, and he became a Muslim by virtue of the law, which considers the incompetent to be a Muslim by nature.
According to the system of alternative families adopted in Egypt, children of unknown parentage must be placed within families that are chosen according to certain conditions and criteria, including the need for the family to be fit and have sound intentions to care for children without exploiting or benefiting from them for special interests.
Adoption rules require that the child be considered a legitimate son of the adoptive parents, as the family has the right to give the child its full name and bequeath to him part of its property, and perhaps this is what prompted the family’s relative to file her claim.
In previous statements, Shenouda’s adoptive mother told Al-Arabiya.net that she and her husband raised and nursed the little boy and provided him with all the care and attention he needed, but due to disputes over the inheritance, it was taken from them and their lives were destroyed.
She also confirmed that she and her husband are ready to give all their possessions to whoever wants, on the condition that he leaves the child to them, appealing to the Egyptian authorities to intervene to return him to their arms.
And she stressed that “the child that God gave her is more important than any money, and her desire to feel motherhood is equivalent to millions of pounds.”
The grieving mother added that she and her husband underwent a DNA analysis, and it was proven that the child was not attributed to them, and therefore it was taken from them, which caused them a great breakdown and shock. However, she confirmed that the Public Prosecution office did not take any action against her and her husband after proving their good intentions.
