On 28 August 2017, the online edition of The Times published reports that a five-year-old girl had been placed in foster care by the Tower Hamlets local authority in London with one Muslim family, then with another.

The decision to place the child in foster care with Muslim families appears to have been taken against the wishes of the child’s family, according to The Times.

In both cases, the foster families seem to have encouraged the child to learn Arabic. The newspaper reported that the first foster family removed the crucifix pendant that the child was wearing and that she was not permitted to eat meals containing pork.