The push to license more Muslim families for foster care in Michigan

In Michigan, a state with a sizable Muslim population, there’s a push to increase the number of licensed Muslim foster care families.

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

Child welfare agencies often try to place kids with families of the same race or with similar cultural or religious backgrounds. In some communities, that can be hard to do. Michigan, for instance, has a significant Muslim population but only a few licensed Muslim foster care homes. WDET’s Nargis Rahman gives us this report on a push to change that.

NARGIS RAHMAN, BYLINE: When she was 13 years old, Najla Almayaly entered the foster care system when her parents divorced. She and her three sisters were separated. Now 20 years old, she lived in seven foster homes, five of which were not Muslim.

NAJLA ALMAYALY: There was no halal food. There was no going to the masjid on Friday. There was no salat, no what I was used to.

RAHMAN: Almayaly says she felt that her non-Muslim foster parents didn’t care about her religion. Food was not prepared a certain way. She didn’t go to the mosque for the traditional prayer. She wasn’t comfortable wearing hijab to cover her hair.

ALMAYALY: I felt like I wasn’t home.

RAHMAN: About 240,000 Muslims live in Michigan. Jessica Sweet, who recruits foster parents for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, says the state doesn’t collect religious information. However, she says many Muslim kids in foster care end up in non-Muslim homes.

JESSICA SWEET: Right now, it really is based on the anecdotal information that we’re getting, reaching out to county offices and having them hand-count this information and send it to us.

RAHMAN: Sameena Zahoor became a foster parent in 2012 after learning about the need from a sermon at her local mosque. Her friend, lifelong educator Ranya Shbeib, became licensed in 2015. Shbeib says they realized many people were not aware there was a need for Muslim foster parents, so they created the Muslim Foster…