The government of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan wants immigrant Turkish children adopted by non-Muslims in Europe removed from their new homes and given to Muslims. If adoptive Muslim families can't be found, they should be returned to Turkey.
That, writer Abigal Esman says, exposes a disturbing reality about Erdoğan's government: "That for the Turkish government, the safety and security such [adoptive, non-Muslim] families might (or might not) provide is less important than their religion."
"In cases where a child must be removed from an unsafe situation, or where he or she has been abandoned, the only thing that matters is finding a loving and stable home, and doing so as quickly as possible," Esman adds.
More than 5,000 Turkish children have been placed in new homes in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. But in the Netherlands, for example, officials say they have no Muslim foster families.
A report from Human Rights Without Frontiers International cites the case of a boy placed with a lesbian couple "after his parents allegedly dropped him on the ground" as a driving force in the campaign.
Ayhan Sefer Üstün, leader of the Turkish Parliament's Human Rights Commission, said children removed from their parents' custody "should be placed with a family closer to his or her culture." Another official suggested letting the natural parents – those who lost their custody rights – select their children's new homes.
The effort comes a year after Erdoğan launched a campaign to raise "a religious generation," Esman writes. While Turkey is a NATO ally and considered a Westernized state, Erdoğan has moved in clear Islamist direction, supporting terrorist groups like Hamas and terror supporters like IHH. He made headlines last week when he denounced Zionism as a "crime against humanity."
As Andrew McCarthy recently noted, labeling things he doesn't like as "crimes against humanity" is becoming "a verbal tic" for Erdoğan. Assimilation is another.
"Either he does not know what a crime is or he does not know what a phobia is, but since a rational mental state is required for the former the latter doesn't qualify," McCarthy wrote. "Or maybe Erdogan knows exactly what crimes and phobias are, but as an Islamo-fascist he figures such niceties should never get in the way of a good smear."
And, apparently, they should not take a back seat to providing safe homes for abused or neglected children.