'Christian' foster girl moved to Muslim grandmother's home

The case of a five-year-old "Christian" girl placed in a Muslim foster home took another turn yesterday with the release of court documents showing the girl’s maternal grandmother is a non-practising Muslim who wants to move the child away from London to bring her up in her (undisclosed) home country.

The girl's mother initially protested that her daughter was Christian and should never have been placed with Muslim foster parents in east London, the Daily Telegraph reports.

The story, published by The Times on Monday, created a furore and debate over whether it was right to place the foster child in unfamiliar cultural surroundings. But Tower Hamlets Council, which had taken the child into care in March after police raised concerns for her safety, said it did not recognise the mother's claims.

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The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is now with her grandmother "after a court ruled that she should not remain in the placement organised by the London borough of Tower Hamlets", The Times reported yesterday.

Judge Khatun Sapnara will now consider whether to allow the grandmother to take the child abroad to live, the court documents show.

"The grandmother has changed her position now to say that she wishes to return to her country of origin and care for the child there," said the judge in an eight-page court summary of the case. "This will require steps to be taken to obtain appropriate orders in the courts in the grandmother's country of origin."