Why Are German Authorities Removing Muslim Children from Their Families?

Intense criticism was directed at the German authorities following the spread of a video clip on April 27, 2023, showing the forceful removal of a child from his Muslim family residing in Bremerhaven city in northern Germany.

The video clip gained widespread circulation on social media, capturing the moment when police officers and the so-called Child Protection Agency entered the home and forcibly took the child away from the family.

The child was visibly scared, crying for help, and trying to evade them.

The family members’ reaction was desperate and heart-wrenching as they shouted at the police officers, informing them that the child had health issues and needed to remain with his family, emphasizing that he should not be taken away from them.

This climate of fear and terror has raised numerous questions about the German laws upon which the authorities rely, granting them the right to take children. Is this a general practice applied to everyone, or does it specifically target the Muslim community and refugee children?

 

The Reason Behind

The media and human rights criticisms, both from within the Muslim communities on German soil and from external voices, prompted the Bremerhaven police to issue a statement claiming that the video circulating on social media had “false allegations” regarding the reasons for removing the child.

They further asserted that “taking children into care is always the last resort, and only happens for serious reasons. We cannot give any further explanations about the basis of this decision to protect the family and children.”

This last part of the police statement, which failed to provide concrete clarifications about the reasons for separating the child from his family, raised suspicions that the matter was linked to profound differences associated with the religious and cultural identity of the family.

However, these suspicions were quickly refuted by activists on social media who closely followed the case.

They verified that, following a complaint from the school, the Youth Welfare Office, in collaboration with the police, intervened and separated the child from his family. The complaint alleged that the family was imparting teachings of discrimination against “alternative sexual orientations,” which are considered incompatible with Islam.

According to local German reports, there has been a noticeable increase in the number of refugee children who have been removed from their families and placed in what is known as the Youth Welfare Office (Jugendamt).

A report by the NTV network on January 17, 2022, stated that statistics from the German Federal Statistical Office confirmed that approximately 47,500 migrant children were temporarily placed in care facilities in 2021, representing a 5% increase compared to 2020.

In contrast, the number of children taken into care in 2017 was around 61,300.

On October 30, 2022, the Qatar News Agency (QNA) published a report on the removal of Muslim children in Germany, stating: “While Germany teaches others human rights, it commits the most heinous humanitarian crimes by kidnapping Muslim children from their families and forcibly converting them, officially under state sponsorship.”

The report mentioned: “This has caused the dispersion of thousands of families and has broken the hearts of parents separated from their children."

The Qatari agency cited the case of 400 children of Turkish origin who were taken away from their parents in Germany in 2022 and handed over to German families wishing to adopt them.

It further explained that the Turkish Ministry of Family and Social Services successfully managed to reunite the children with their families in one of the most prominent cases in recent times.

The Jugendamt in Germany had previously handed Turkish children over to German families for adoption, only to later reveal its involvement in the abduction of over 200,000 children from immigrant families.

These children were then sent to German families of different religions who desired to adopt them, without considering their religion or culture.

This act not only deprived parents of their children but also caused a humanitarian tragedy for the families, as reported by QNA.

 

Jugendamt’s Crimes

Turning to the relevant authority directly regarding these events, it is the Jugendamt, responsible for all families residing in Germany regardless of their nationality or immigration status.

The office identifies itself on the official website of the German government as the entity that provides care for marginalized children and adolescents or those who have been subjected to harm.

It offers advice and support to all families, and in case of any questions regarding child care or facing any challenges related to raising children, contacting the office’s staff is possible, according to the website.

The website mentioned that children can directly contact the Jugendamt if they encounter any problems with their parents.

According to German laws, the Jugendamt has the right to remove children from their parents’ custody on the grounds of experiencing abuse, physical violence, threats, or any form of domestic fear.

Loose provisions have been established for the right to remove a child, for example, a clause stating anything that endangers the child’s well-being, with interpretation left to the discretion of the office, which can result in forcefully taking the child away from their parents.

On February 18, 2022, Al-Jazeera published one of the strangest stories told by a Syrian refugee who claimed to have arrived in Germany at the end of 2015.

The refugee recounted: “A few months earlier, my nephew Bassem playfully hung my son Mohammed, who was one and a half years old, on the door of the house and took a picture.”

He added: “In 2017, a dispute arose between Bassem and me, so he called the police and showed them the photo, claiming that we were negligent towards the child and putting his life at risk.”

He further stated: “For this reason, Jugendamt employees started coming to my home to check on the child, and this continued for two years until they took him away in 2019.”

But the most alarming aspect mentioned by the Syrian refugee in Germany is that his child “was physically assaulted on the head by one of the employees at Jugendamt, and my child was filmed while narrating what happened to him.”

He continued: “They transferred him to a center in a nearby city to return him to my home according to the court’s decision, but that was ignored, and he was moved to several places and subjected to sexual harassment.”

 

Unjust Laws

The imam of the Islamic Center in Dresden, Germany, Ahmad Zidan, described the laws and regulations adopted by the German government regarding children and their absolute right to be taken away from their families as “unjust” and psychologically damaging to the child and the family.

In an interview with Al-Estiklal, he stated: “The German government and the Youth Welfare Office do not take into consideration the religious and cultural backgrounds of Muslim families or other families from different parts of the world. They apply what is applied to German families, and perhaps in a more arbitrary manner."

He added: “For example, here in Germany, parents are not allowed to shout at or verbally abuse their child in any way. If such incidents are reported, the Youth Welfare Office intervenes and questions the child and the parents.”

The entire family then undergoes what is known as the system of monitoring and weekly follow-up. After a period of time, they decide whether to take the child away from the family or keep them under observation, according to Zidan.

He emphasized that “the foundations of German laws are completely different from Islamic laws, where the child is considered a separate entity entirely from the parents, and the state grants the child guardianship rights without the parents having control over them as we do in our country.”

He explained that “these differences make immigrants more vulnerable to the threat of custody transfer for a variety of reasons, including their limited knowledge of the laws and the vast cultural differences. We cannot overlook the presence of prejudiced, racist, and extremist ideas among some officials and residents towards immigrants, which leads them to treat them more harshly and unfairly.”

He continued: “They prioritize this perspective over any other consideration and seek to report immigrants and abuse them when it comes to the issue of taking children away from them and placing them under the custody of Jugendamt.”