I'm with Mandi on this. The issue isn't some grudge that westerners feel about having one of 'our own' taken away by a Qatari.

It's much simpler than that. The child has a livign parent and a dead one. In what world is it wiser to take the child away from his mother to grant custody to his extended family?

And taking the article at face value, the child has no societal links to Qatar. He wasn't living here at the time of his father's death, and only came here on a holiday.

I don't see how it can be in the child's best interests (and isn't working towards the best interests of the child the duty of custodians?) to remove him from both his mother and his home in Bahrain?

Let the case go to court and let a judge make a ruling. But until then, surely the child should stay with his mother??