Mother of Christian twins seeks Azhar fatwa 
 
By Essma Fadl 
 
9/28/2010 Egypt (Daily News Egypt) – Kamelia Lotfy Gaballah, a mother of two 16-year-old twins — Andrew and Mario — whose father converted to Islam, requested that the Grand Sheikh of Al Azhar issue her a fatwa that would prevent her children from forcibly converting to Islam.

Such a fatwa would eventually enable the twins to be registered as Christians on their national ID cards.

Gaballah presented a note to the Grand Sheikh of Al Azhar Dr. Ahmed Al-Tayyeb which asks him to issue a fatwa indicating that Sharia gives the right to children who have reached the age of 15 to choose which religion they believe and follow.

This fatwa is meant to support a different one that Gaballah previously managed to obtain from the Egyptian House of Jurisprudence, through which she won custody of her children in April 2009 after their Muslim-convert father claimed custody was his.

…

The case of Andrew and Mario raised controversy among human rights activists and religious scholars during the five-year custody battle.

The twins’ secondary school stopped them both from attending religion classes due to an intervention made by the Minister of Education. The school had insisted that the twins must attend Islam classes rather than Christian classes since most of their documents identify the twins as Muslim.

Gaballah said that her kids know nothing about Islam, as they were born and raised as Christians.

Gaballah filed another lawsuit before the Administrative Court to change her twins’ religion on their birth certificates, but the court refused to proceed with the lawsuit last March.

Later Gaballah appealed to the Higher Administrative Court, but the date for the hearing has not yet been scheduled.

…

“I just want to change their religion in the official papers to end their suffering, especially since they cannot take thanaweyya amma exams without their national ID cards,” Gaballah said.

…