Christians in Egypt are praying and campaigning for the reunion of a five-year-old orphan boy with his adoptive Coptic Christian parents.
Authorities forcibly removed the child from the parents at the age of four and put him in an orphanage.
Egyptian family status law is based on Islamic Sharia law which forbids adoption.
The boy was abandoned as a newborn in a Coptic church.
The priest who found him gave the baby to a childless Christian couple who had prayed for a baby for many years.
They named him Shenouda which means ‘son of God.’
He was baptised and had a cross tattooed on the inner wrist of his right hand to depict his faith.
“Adopting Shenouda enriched our lives. We treated him as if he were our own biological child, enrolling him in the church choir and in karate classes,” his mother told Al-Monitor, adding she hoped the boy would grow up to serve in the church.
Those hopes were shattered when the adoptive father’s niece accused the couple of kidnapping a child she alleged was a Muslim.
The parents suspect envy and concerns that she would lose her inheritance were behind the complainant’s “reckless” act that “turned our lives upside down.”
The boy was subsequently placed in an orphanage at the behest of Ministry of Social Solidarity officials.
His name was changed to Youssef and he was officially registered as a Muslim.
The adoptive parents were recently allowed their first meeting with the boy in the orphanage.
They found him “deeply distressed” and “confused.”
Christian advocacy group Coptic Solidarity says his forced conversion will impact his entire life.
It accused the Egyptian government of not taking active measures to resolve the case.
The adoptive parents have petitioned the Public Prosecutor’s Office, requesting that the child be reunited with his Christian family on the grounds that Christianity does not forbid adoption.
A court hearing has been deferred multiple times. It’s now scheduled for March 18.
Shenouda’s case has caused uproar on Egyptian and global social media in recent weeks.
Christians and Muslims alike have expressed their solidarity with the couple, with some urging the authorities to prioritise humanity over religion.
A prominent Islamic scholar argued that the case was “not a religious matter.”
He said: “No child is born Muslim; religious identity should be determined at puberty, not before.”
The Egyptian National Council on Human Rights is supporting the reuniting of Shenouda with his adoptive parents.
They have appealed to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to intervene.
Al-Monitor reports the case has provoked impassioned debate on children’s rights, particularly the right of a child to live within a safe and secure family environment.
It has also placed Egypt’s adoption laws under intense scrutiny.
