Fostering is complex. Lurid headlines stoking fear of Muslims don’t help | Esmat Jeraj

My parents were foster carers for 25 years, and we need more like them. Amid a desperate shortage, the Times’ front page will do more harm than good

I believe that too little time and energy is spent discussing vulnerable children in the care system, or the foster families who perform an invaluable duty on behalf of the state, giving children the opportunity to experience the childhood they deserve and which they may otherwise not have had.

You might have thought, then, that I would welcome a front page of a national newspaper devoted to the subject. But instead it was with dismay that I saw the Times’s story on Monday, headlined “Christian child forced into Muslim foster care”. According to the report that followed, the “white Christian child was taken from her family ... to live with a niqab-wearing foster-carer in a home where she was allegedly encouraged to learn Arabic”.

I also wonder whether, if the religions were reversed, there would be the same uproar

Tomorrow's front page: Christian child forced into Muslim foster care #tomorrowspaperstoday http://pic.twitter.com/mi2fl6rEGS

Related: Council to be questioned after placing Christian girl with Muslim foster carers

Continue reading...

from Children | The Guardian http://ift.tt/2xu6Une