PAKISTAN: British girl in custody row says she loves Islam

A 12-year-old Scottish girl at the centre of a tug-of-love between her parents said in Pakistan on Sunday (September 3) that her British mother had tried to convert her from Islam against her will. "I was born as a Muslim. I love being a Muslim. So I am a Muslim and it is in my blood," said Molly Campbell during a news conference in Pakistan's eastern city Lahore. A day earlier, a Pakistani court awarded temporary custody of Molly Campbell to her father, Sajad Ahmed Rana, after she told a judge that she wanted to live in the Muslim country. The court also invited the mother to a second hearing scheduled for Wednesday. British police launched an investigation after Campbell left her mother -- her legal guardian -- in the Western Isles of Scotland to travel to Lahore with her father and elder sister. Campbell's mother, Louise, has made an emotional plea for her daughter to return home, while her grandmother was quoted in British newspapers as saying she thought the girl could be forced into an arranged marriage. But the girl, who is also known as Misbah Iram Rana, rejected the impression. Rana also read a statement to the news conference in which he said his ex-wife's outlook had been poisoned by a "lunatic fringe of white racists" against brown and black people and Islam, and she required treatment after suffering a mental breakdown. But, Rana, who has British citizenship, said he was ready to give the mother access to her daughter in Pakistan. There are about 400 cases of British children of Pakistani descent being abducted and brought to Pakistan every year, said an official at the British High Commission in Islamabad. Most of the cases are resolved under an agreement signed by Pakistan and Britain in 2003.

ITN Source | September 4, 2006

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