COURT GRANT COUPLE RIGHT TO NAME THEIR BABY “ALLAH”
A couple’s request to name their toddler daughter the surname “Allah” has been granted by the Georgia officials.
According to civil liberties advocates on Thursday the Georgia officials had earlier refused to issue a birth certificate to the toddler because neither parent has that name.
The decision has been described as a
victory for free expression by The American Civil Liberties Union, which brought a lawsuit.
However, a top official with the largest U.S. Muslim advocacy group criticized the choice to use the Arabic word for “God” as culturally insensitive.
The toddler, ZalyKha Graceful Lorraina Allah, who will soon turn 2, was born in Atlanta to parents Elizabeth Handy and Bilal Walk, who waited about a year before seeking a birth certificate for the child.
It was discovered that the couple had no difficulties obtaining birth certificates for their older children, ages 3 and 17, who also have the surname “Allah,” a clerk for the Georgia Department of Health blocked the request for the youngest child.
The America Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) had Last month, filed suit in state court against the leaders of the state department of health and the state office of vital records to compel them to allow the surname chosen by the parents, said Sean J. Young, legal director for the ACLU of Georgia.
Georgia law requires that clerks allow any name chosen by the parents as long as it is not provocative or offensive, Young said in a phone interview. The department relented on Friday, and the ACLU dropped the suit.
Nihad Awad, national director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said using “Allah” as a stand-alone surname was not culturally acceptable.
“You would never use just Allah. That would be considered very inappropriate,” Awad said in a phone interview.
Young said he did not know if the couple were Muslim but that he considered the question legally irrelevant.
Handy and Walk, who were not available for comment, live together in Atlanta and are expecting a fourth child, Young said.
“This is an important vindication of parental rights,” Andrea Young, executive director of the ACLU of Georgia, said in a statement. “No one wants to live in a world where the government can dictate what you can and cannot name your child.”
A spokeswoman for the Georgia Department of Health declined to comment on the matter.
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