{"id":6932,"date":"2014-02-03T15:13:27","date_gmt":"2014-02-03T15:13:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/?p=6932"},"modified":"2014-02-03T15:30:45","modified_gmt":"2014-02-03T15:30:45","slug":"2014feb03ss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/2014feb03ss\/","title":{"rendered":"Protests over lesbian adoption of Somali girl"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_6933\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6933\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/somalis.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-6933\" alt=\"Somalis demonstrating last year outside the South African Embassy in London\" src=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/somalis-300x199.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/somalis-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/somalis-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/somalis.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6933\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Somalis demonstrating last year outside the South African Embassy in London<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The adoption by white lesbians\u00a0of a girl from the Muslim Somali community <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibtimes.co.uk\/anger-somali-muslim-girl-adopted-by-white-lesbians-harrow-1434808\" target=\"_blank\">has been halted after protests<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12px;\">The three-year-old was due to be handed over by Harrow Borough Council but a week of protests have left the Council with no alternative but to put the adoption on hold.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>More than 50 women from the Somali community demonstrated outside the headquarters of Harrow Council to protest against the decision and urge the local authority to reconsider the adoption.<\/p>\n<p>Tory-controlled Harrow say the girl and two older siblings were &#8216;taken into care&#8217; after they decided the children&#8217;s mother had &#8216;mental health problems&#8217;. \u00a0In a cultural context, children of a mother who could not cope would always be taken in by relatives, but despite offers from the family, Harrow told the child&#8217;s mother by letter that there were no Muslim Somali adopters available.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mirror.co.uk\/news\/uk-news\/white-lesbian-couple-chosen-adopt-3104990#.Uu-abT1_uSo\" target=\"_blank\">According to the Daily Mirror<\/a><\/strong>, a\u00a0family member named Ibrahim told the Sunday Times they want the little girl to be brought up by a family who share their religious and ethnic background.<\/p>\n<p>He claims four blood relatives on the mother&#8217;s side were willing to adopt the toddler but were turned down.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12px;\">A spokesman for Harrow Council said: &#8220;Adoption decisions are taken after lengthy and extremely thorough consideration of what is in the child&#8217;s best interests.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Ministers have said they want adoptions to be carried out more quickly and preferences that children should be placed in similar racial or cultural environments to be swept aside. \u00a0<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/education-17156982\" target=\"_blank\">Ofsted has introduced (in 2012) a new target for speed in adoptions<\/a><\/strong>. \u00a0But as <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/uknews\/1584940\/Cash-prize-for-council-that-hit-adoption-targets.html\" target=\"_blank\">more and more adoptions are done against the wishes of parents<\/a><\/strong>, and at a time when <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/2014jan14ss\/\" target=\"_blank\">cases where children have been taken into care wrongly are increasing<\/a><\/strong>, speed will inevitably lead to injustice.<\/p>\n<p><span>(When adoptions are carried out against parents&#8217; wishes the children\u00a0are euphemistically ordered \u00a0by the court to be &#8216;freed for adoption&#8217;.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The 2002 Adoption Act allowed same-sex couples to adopt and that in turn has led to complaints from biological relatives of adopted children.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>In 2009, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/uknews\/scotland\/4379200\/Mothers-anger-over-gay-couples-adoption-of-her-children.html\" target=\"_blank\">one mother in Scotland went public<\/a><\/strong> when her children were placed with homosexuals after an offer to adopt from their grandparents was turned down. \u00a0Councils have been receiving <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sundaypost.com\/news-views\/scotland\/war-of-words-as-gay-adoption-applications-soar-1.168681\" target=\"_blank\">as many as 50% of their applications<\/a><\/strong> to be considered as adoptive parents from pairs of homosexuals.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Find out how to join Christian Voice and stand up for the King of kings (clicking on the link below does not commit you to join)<\/strong><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/wp.me\/P1OVTZ-gb\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3940\" style=\"border: 0px;\" title=\"Join Today!\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Join_donate_Logo2.jpg\" width=\"185\" height=\"180\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Please note that persons wishing to comment on this story must enter a valid email address. Comments from persons leaving fictitious email addresses will be trashed.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The adoption by white lesbians\u00a0of a girl from the Muslim Somali community has been halted after protests. The three-year-old was due to be handed over by Harrow Borough Council but a week of protests have left the Council with no alternative but to put the adoption on hold. More than 50 women from the Somali [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[981,979,982,980],"class_list":{"0":"post-6932","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-social-services-child-abduction","7":"tag-adoption","9":"tag-lesbians","10":"tag-somalis"},"aioseo_notices":[],"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Stephen","author_link":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/author\/stephen\/"},"rttpg_comment":15,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/category\/education-children\/social-services-child-abduction\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Social Services &amp; Child Abduction<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"The adoption by white lesbians\u00a0of a girl from the Muslim Somali community has been halted after protests. The three-year-old was due to be handed over by Harrow Borough Council but a week of protests have left the Council with no alternative but to put the adoption on hold. More than 50 women from the Somali&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6932\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}