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After a 18-month-old court battle, Seyam was granted the right to name his baby boy jihad.
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BERLIN — Alleging that the word is an equivalent of terror and violence, German authorities are vowing a long judicial battle to deny a Muslim father the right to name his baby boy "jihad".
"The court that allows such a name is extremely naïve," said Berlin's interior minister, Erhart Kurting, pledging to appeal a court verdict allowing the use of the name.
A Berlin court ruled earlier this week that Reda Seyam, a German of Egyptian descent, has every right to name his boy jihad, overruling a decision by Charlottenburg district's registry to reject the father's application.
Seyam, 47, has been fighting for the right to use the name since his baby was born 18 months ago.
The registry had told him the name he chose was inappropriate because of its association with terrorism and killing people of other religions.
But the court ruled that the name is a recognized male forename in the Arab world and Muslim world.
The Berlin City Police Department has also said it is going to appeal the ruling in the interest of the child.
Germany has strict rules governing the naming of children. Parents have to choose from a list of court-approved names.
Names like Hitler and Stalin are banned.
In 2002, a Turkish couple was denied permission to name their child Osama bin Laden.
Stereotyping
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"The word means war," Kurting said.
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The German minister claimed that "jihad" is a synonym of violence.
"It is always associated with terrorism," he insisted.
"Even if it is a common male name in the Muslim world, there must be some consideration to the significance of the name in the country you live in.
"The word means war."
The Arabic word Jihad has been wrongly stereotyped in the West as merely meaning holy war.
Pope Benedict XVI provoked international criticism last September for questioning the Islamic concept of Jihad and quoting a Byzantine emperor who said that Islam had spread by the sword.
Muslim scholars have affirmed that the word means "struggle" or "striving" to do good and to remove injustice, oppression and evil from society.
Karen Armstrong, a prominent and prolific British writer on all three monotheistic religions, has criticized the West's abuse of the word for certain purposes.
She stressed that jihad is "a cherished spiritual value that, for most Muslims, has no connection with violence."
Germany is home to some 3.4 million Muslims, including 220,000 in Berlin. And Islam comes third in Germany after Protestant and Catholic Christianity.
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