By Maged Younan – Attorney –
To whom it may concern: What is unfolding in the case of Silvana exposes an organized network engaged in what can only be described as forced Islamization.
If the minor girl is not returned to her safe environment, this will no longer remain a personal case concerning Silvana alone. It will become a matter of the state, because a state that abides by its constitution is obliged to protect a minor without discrimination.
What is contained in the case file, and what has been circulated in the name of religion, is completely alien to the essence of religion itself, and even more so in direct violation of the law.
The reality is that we are facing coercion imposed by force, as though we are expected to submit and surrender to something we neither chose nor ever disputed.
We are confronting mindsets that assume embracing Islam represents the “correct choice” and the “best interest of the minor,” without any legal basis and with no regard for freedom of belief—as though personal conviction has been transformed into a general rule imposed by force.
The undeniable truth is that no one has the right to compel another person in matters of belief or thought, whether they consider that belief right or wrong. Faith is a matter of choice, and coercion in belief is a crime.
When a security officer becomes a party to the crime instead of a guardian of the law, we are entitled to ask: How can we trust him? And how can we live under such a dysfunction?
We (Christians) are neither infidels nor idolaters. Our women are not spoils of war, nor are they to be offered up as captives. And the logic of religious domination will not be allowed to be reproduced under any pretext.
I regret to say to all those who colluded or participated in what happened to Silvana: the suffering endured by the minor’s parents shall not be in vain. Justice—even if delayed—will not vanish.
And unfortunately for those involved in this case, I am the lawyer entrusted with restoring the minor, and this case will not be closed, nor will it end, before we answer a fundamental question:
Are we still partners in this homeland, as we once were its builders?
Or have we become mere targets of blatent persecution and contempt?
Police stations and prosecutorial bodies are NOT institutions of religious guidance. They are not permitted to favor a creed, impose an ideology, or allow a certain belief to determine destiny—especially when a minor entitled to protection is involved.
And if Christians choose silence, they have a God who defends them.
And Silvana has a lawyer who will not abandon her—whatever the cost.
