An American Child Kidnapped in Accordance with Shariah

Office of Child Issues  to deal with complaints and conduct investigations of such abuses. Media stories sparked by 9/11 led  the US. House of Repesentatives Government Reform Committee, then chaired by former Indiana Republican Dan Burton, to hold five days of hearings from June to December 2002. The Committee published a final report, Investigation into Abductions of American Children to Saudi Arabia. In one instance, the Committee heard from a 16 year old daughter of a Florida woman, Dria Hernandez-Davis, about her experience of living under difficult circumstances and her remarkable escape and rescue. A rescue privately financed with $200,000 in bribes provided by her grandmother who sold her home to obtain the necessary funds. The US State Department Office of Child Issues and the US Embassy legation in Riyadh appeared to have offered little assistance to rescue these children.

Watch this CBS 60 Minutes You Tube video on the 2002 House Government Reform Committee hearing:

Professor McClain consented to tell her story about the kidnapping of her American daughter, Heidi, by her Saudi ex-husband to alert other Americans as to the dangers of Shariah law sanctioning spousal abuse and criminal violations of US laws against kidnapping. Heidi is now 21 years old. Professor McClain last visited her six years ago under intense restrictions in Saudi Arabia. Only her older daughter Roxanne by a prior marriage has had periodic contact with Heidi in Saudi Arabia.

Heidi McClain -American Child Lost to Shariah from Jerry Gordon on Vimeo.

Against this background, we reached out to Professor McClain for this interview:

When did you give birth to your daughter Heidi al-Omary? 

Our divorce was not final yet, so he was basically committing bigamy, thumbing his nose at the authorities. I reported this crime and violation of our visitation agreement, whereby he was to have no members of the opposite sex in the home while my daughter was there unless he could prove they were legally married under the laws of the United States. He never provided this proof.

Keep in mind that during this time Al-Omary was still a student, so he was trying his best to drag out the divorce as long as possible. He risked deportation and loss of his green card if we divorced too soon.

It is my feeling that his brother, who was working with Saudi Airlines, had something to do with getting the kidnapper tickets to leave the country.

Another mother received an urgent email from her kidnapped daughter, asking her to go to the Philippines to rescue her. The mother was able to get the daughter out, but the younger siblings had to be left behind.

None of the children were ever voluntarily returned from Saudi Arabia, and no Saudi court has ever turned over custody to a non-Saudi parent. Even one American Muslim man was denied custody or visitation with his children.

___________________

The West Speaks.

To comment on this interview, please click here.

here.

here.

here.