(NewsInsights.org) – Nashville Police conducting a welfare check on a juvenile at a local home found the young man in distress on Monday, December 11. His employer had called the authorities because he became concerned about the boy. Responding officers found the teen “trembling and wide-eyed” with a series of lumps and cuts on his face, according to their report. He told the police his Muslim family, including his father, mother, and brother, had attacked him after he told them he had converted to Christianity.
Authorities arrested the boy’s mother, Rawaa Khawaji,46, his father, Nick Kadum, 57, and his older brother, John Kadum, 29, after they punched, cut, scratched, and spat on the boy while threatening him and insisting he renounce Christianity in favor of Islam. The young man also told police his mother used a knife to “scratch” the back of his hand, trying to make him recant.
First responders transported the juvenile to the hospital for treatment. Police charged the three adults with bodily injury and domestic assault. His mother received an additional charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for using the knife. According to Fox News, authorities had released his father and brother by Tuesday afternoon, but his mother remained in custody.
According to a National Review article, the young man’s experience with his family is typical for apostates or individuals who leave a religion from traditional Islamic families. Many Muslims consider apostasy a grave sin, and in some Muslim-majority countries, like Qatar, Saudi Arabia, or Iran, it’s a criminal offense punishable by death.
Two former Muslims in the US, Sarah Haider and Muhammad Syed, formed a support network called Ex-Muslims of North America (EXMNA). This non-profit organization helps replace the community that many Muslims feel they lose when they renounce their faith. Some of the stories members tell sound eerily similar to the Nashville tale. The organization works to provide resources and ideas to its members.
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