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COLUMBUS DISPATCH – June 2, 2006
Suit says children services tried
to steer kids from Islam
By Kevin Mayhood
A Grandview Heights mother who fought Franklin County Children Services after her daughters were placed in foster care for a year says that the agency tried to steer the children from Islam to Christianity.
Hadiya AbdulSalaam, who was cleared of neglect charges last year, has filed a federal lawsuit in Columbus claiming discrimination and harassment.
"It's a despicable and horrifying example of abuse of governmental power," said her attorney, Rex Elliot.
John Saros, executive director of Children Services, declined to talk about specific allegations, but said there was "no violation of federal rights as we pursued our effort to provide services to this family."
The suit, filed Wednesday, contends that caseworkers attempted to persuade the girls to renounce Islam, in part by falsely reporting that AbdulSalaam forced her children to work long hours in the family store to the detriment of their education and well-being, and that she was physically and emotionally abusive.
It also says the agency, through the foster parents with whom the girls lived, encouraged the daughters to adopt Christianity. Children Services also initiated contact with the Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority, which resulted in AbdulSalaam being evicted and made homeless, the suit says.
AbdulSalaam complained that Children Services refused to place her daughters with a Muslim foster family, to meet with Muslim leaders and to allow the family prayers during visits. . .
Makeba and Meserete were returned to AbdulSalaam in July 2004. Two months later, a Franklin County Juvenile Court magistrate ruled they had been neglected and inappropriately forced to work.
Judge Carole S. Squire overruled the magistrate in October and said Children Services had failed to make reasonable efforts to help the family before placing the children in foster care.
Squire said she was "appalled" a caseworker had told a counseling center not to let the family hold prayers together….
http://www.columbusdispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/06/02/20060602-E6-00.html
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