Appeal Over Baby Named Jihad
The German interior ministry is appealing against a decision by the Berlin authorities to allow an Islamist to name his son Jihad, the Arabic word used for holy war.
Reda Seyam fought for 18 months for permission to give his sixth child the name after the registry in the Berlin district of Charlottenburg initially rejected his application, saying the name was inappropriate because of its association with terrorism, and “may endanger the child”.
This week a court overturned the ruling, on the grounds that Jihad was “a recognised male forename in the Arab world and loved by Muslims”.
Mr Seyam, 47, a self-declared Islamist, was shown on television this week presenting his son. Grinning into the camera, Jihad on his knee, he said: “You had barely come into the world and you were in court. Your fight has already begun.”
In the same programme he defended the terror attacks on the United States on September 11 2001, and on Bali in 2002.
Germany has strict rules governing the naming of children. Parents have to choose from a list of court-approved names, to prevent a child from becoming a victim of ridicule or confusion. The names Hitler and Stalin are banned, and in 2002 a Turkish couple living in Germany were denied permission to name their child Osama bin Laden.
Berlin’s interior minister, Erhart Körting, said a court that allowed “a father who has welcomed al-Qaida attacks to name his child in this way has underestimated in an appallingly naive manner the meaning of this name”.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/germany/ar...023810,00.html
Comment:
So it seems to name your child after cartoon characters, George Bush or Tony Blair is ok. But to name them based on Islamic terms like " Jihad" or even Usamah Bin Laden is not allowed. Even names like Adolph Hitlet and Stalin are also banned.
Hard to believe that all this is happening in Europe in 2007 which is supposed to be a place of freedom and the right to act and do as u please, but obviously not for certain sections of its citizens.
We have had western politicians dictating to Muslim women what they can and cannot wear and now we have them telling us what we can and cannot call our children. Names like Hitler and Stalin have been banned, yet western politicians are behaving exactly like those two despots did.
I disagree with glorifying 9/11 and Bali attacks, but surely people are entitled to free thought and opinions based on their ideological inclinations?
Or is this the beginning of thought control in Europe?
Quite funny that Europeans ask Muslims to have a reformation which they went through in the middle ages when they divided church from state because it was dictating to people what they could and could not think about and yet they are doing the same thing , this time in the name of Secularism.
