German dentist refuses to treat boy named Jihad

DONAUESCHINGEN - A German dentist refused to treat a 16-year-old boy this week because his first name means Jihad, the youth’s father said Friday.

The family in Donaueschingen may ask police to charge the woman with discrimination over the alleged incident, which happened Tuesday.

The teenager went to the orthodontist to have his dental brace adjusted - but she reportedly said she considered his name a declaration of war on non-Muslims and sent him away.

The boy is named Cihad, the spelling in Turkey of jihad, which is a common male forename in Islamic nations.

The orthodontist later told the Schwarzwaelder Boten, a newspaper in southern Germany, that she had later regretted her decision, because “it’s not the boy’s own fault what name his parents gave him”.

She could not be contacted by DPA for comment.

Although the media often translate jihad as “holy war”, religion scholars said Friday it was a general term in Islam for serving God’s cause with all one’s might.

Dental authorities said they were checking whether she was in breach of her contractual obligation to treat all insured patients.

The boy had been undergoing teeth-straightening treatment for two years at the same practice, but with a different orthodontist, who had been absent on the day in question.

The father said he was astonished anyone could object to his boy.

“His name has never been a problem before,” he said. Earlier he told the newspaper the parents chose the name 16 years ago because it sounded nice, not out of any Islamist motivation.

Municipal officials in Donaueschingen also voiced surprise that the boy had met with a refusal. “It’s a perfectly normal name in Turkey,” said a municipal spokesman.