(March 5, 2019 at 10:10 pm)epronovost Wrote:(March 5, 2019 at 5:31 pm)Yonadav Wrote: It sounds pretty heartless, but her child isn't our problem. The child is a Syrian citizen. Hoda Muthana had already forfeited any claim that she had to US citizenship before the child was born. We have no obligation toward that child.
However, for the sake of the child's relatives in America, I don't see any reason that one of them should not be permitted to travel to Syria, take custody of the child, and bring it to the US. Or perhaps the relatives would only have to go to Turkey, if the Syrians can arrange for the child to be transported there. Hoda Muthana might not be willing to give up her child like that. If she won't give the child up, then she's entirely responsible for what becomes of the child in Syrian hands.
According to Syrian law though, no, the child isn't Syrian. Citizenship in Syria is granted by the father's blood. If a Syrian man has children, no matter where or with who, his children are Syrian. If the father is unknown, the children gain the nationality if their mother is Syrian. So no, in her case, the child isn't Syrian under Syrian law. Also, according to international law and status on statelessness and ennemy combattant, if Muthana is indeed an American citizen (or was an American citizen), she must be returned to the US and face trial there. What is absolutly certain within international law is that she can't be stateless and face imprisonment or execution in a "foreign country" of course, Syrians don't want to have to handle them for obvious reasons as they are a security risk and drain on their scarce resources and their home country basically think the same thing. I think they are going to fall in the hole of undesirable and create a new generation of stateless terrorists whome are judicial system and institutions aren't equipped to treat fairly and whose hope of integrating a normal civil society is next to null.
Like I said, I think that it is reasonable that a member of Muthana's American family should be able to go and take custody of the child.
We do not inherit the world from our parents. We borrow it from our children.
