A German dentist refused to treat a 16-year-old boy this week because his first name means Jihad, dpa cited the youth's father as saying today. The family in Donaueschingen, southern Germany, may ask police to charge the woman with discrimination over the alleged incident, which happened on Tuesday. The teenager went to the orthodontist to have his dental brace adjusted - but she reportedly said she considered his name a declaration of war on non-Muslims and sent him away. The boy is named Cihad, the spelling in Turkey of jihad, which is a common male forename in Islamic nations. The orthodontist told the German Press Agency dpa on Friday she was sorry. "I got a terrible shock when I read the name on his file. It suggested to me a violent attitude," she said. She had agreed to a "round-table" meeting with Cihad and his family where she plans to "apologize with no ifs and buts." Orthodontists are a type of doctor specializing in surgery on the gums and teeth. Although the media often translate jihad as "holy war," religion scholars said Friday it was a general term in Islam for serving God's cause with all one's might. Authorities said they were checking whether she was in breach of her contractual obligation to treat all insured patients. The boy had been undergoing teeth-straightening treatment for two years at the same practice, but with a different orthodontist, who had been absent on the day in question. The father said he was astonished anyone could object to his boy. "His name has never been a problem before," he said. Earlier he told a newspaper the parents chose the name 16 years ago because it had sounded nice, not out of any Islamist motivation. Municipal officials in Donaueschingen, population 22,000, also voiced surprise the boy had met with a refusal. "It's a perfectly normal name in Turkey," said a municipal spokesman.
