"Light Blows"

Force-feeding the Quran into the young is a favorite activity of many Muslim households. This becomes uglier when the first language of the family isn't Arabic. The kids have to memorize an entire book of asinine words without understanding a single sentence. If they don't or if they make mistakes, then a heavy stick reminds them of the peaceful nature of Islam.

On this matter, MEMRI recently did a translation of an Al Jazeera TV show.

Interviewer: "Fatima, have you ever been beaten to make you memorize the Koran - you or any of your classmates?"

Fatima Abd Al-Hamid, a student at a Koran school: "No, but sometimes the teacher punishes me. If I make a small mistake, for example, she says that I must concentrate on this. Sometimes, she tells us to concentrate on it again."

Interviewer: "How are you punished?"

Fatima Abd Al-Hamid: "She tugs our ears or strikes us with a ruler."

Interviewer: "What about you, Luqman?"

After a few more questions:

Luqman Abd Al-Hamid: "He hit me on the hand."

Interviewer: "With a ruler?"

Luqman Abd Al-Hamid: "No, he hit me lightly with his hand."

Interviewer: "Can you show us how he hit you?"

Luqman Abd Al-Hamid: "He has a strong hand, Allah be praised, and he hit me."

Reread that last sentence and let it sink in.

Later an audience member states that he was beaten with a rod.

Member of the audience: "Doesn't beating run counter to the religion of Islam?"

Interviewer: "He is referring to the beating of children."

Dr. Arabi 'Atallah Al-Qweidri: 'Do you mean beating as a punishment at school?"

Member of the audience: "In school and in Koran memorization schools."

Dr. Arabi 'Atallah Al-Qweidri: "This beating does not run counter to Islam. It is permitted for the sake of education. But by 'beating,' I mean light blows, light punishment, so that the child or student will learn a lesson, and will serve as an example to others. If the student is left unpunished, there will be chaos."

There is no reason -- only naked power. This occurs in every Muslim-majority nation in all kinds of schools. (If you're in the West, then go ahead and ask any first-generation Muslim acquaintance about his/her "academic" experience.)

One can't help but ask: If Muslims treat their own kids and kind in such a vicious manner then what kind of treatment would they mete out to those they profess to hate?

Comments

[Cafe Alpha]

After readering her book, I'm convinced that it was her early experience in a Baptist nursery school that gave Irshad Manji such an open minded attitude about religion that she can not fit in among Muslims. Baptists may be fundamentalist Christians, but unlike Muslims, they're kind to young children, encourage them to ask questions (though they don't encourage older people to ask questions) and she was rewarded for her interest (they literally gave her an award for her interest in religion). It was a bit of an attempt to slyly turn her into a Christian, but they treat their own children exactly the same way, when they're that age.

Odd to say, but compared with Muslims even fundamentalist Christians are very modern and liberal.

100 years ago they were beating children. I remember a German psychiatrist who studied Nazi Germany and came to the conclusion that the widespread abuse of even babies, created a generation disposed to hatred, violence and to the wish to disappear into the crowd. Back then it was the belief that babies were born with original sin and that you had to beat the evil out of them...

[Cafe Alpha]

Though I do believe that psychiatrists are neither really scientists nor historians. She may have been wrong, but there is something to the notion that one's attitude toward humanity will be set for life by whether you are accustom to seeing other people as a source of pain or of comfort and love in your childhood.

[Isaac Schrödinger]

That's quite something.

I didn't know that Manji didn't attend an Islamic school. She was fortunately never brutalized.

Ignorance and moral equivalence has led many to see no difference between fundamentalist Christianity and Islam today. They refuse to see just how incredibly vicious Muslims are to their young. The parents of these kids who're assaulted by teachers aren't ignorant of what's going on. Many years ago, they had the same horrible experience and now they approve of this wretched practice with their silence. How can they complain? Many beat their kids -- and I don't mean "lightly".

[Classical Liberal]

I really want to post that poem that says things like "Raise a child with kindness, and he will be kind as an adult. Raise him with hatred, and as an adult he will hate..." but I can't find it online. Does anyone know what I'm talking about, and if so, could you post a copy here?

[Cafe Alpha]

Her parents took her out of that day care when they realized that she was getting religious instruction there. It was probably Islamic schools from then on.

[Laura(southernxyl)]

Here's one form of it.

If A Child Lives With. . .

by Dorothy Law Nolte

If a child lives with criticism. . . . . . . .he learns to condemn.

If a child lives with hostility. . . . . . . . he learns to fight.

If a child lives with fear. . . . . . . .he learns to be apprehensive.

If a child lives with jealousy. . . . . . . .he learns to feel guilt.

If a child lives with tolerance. . . . . . . .he learns to be patient.

If a child lives with encouragement . . . . . . . .he learns to be confident.

If a child lives with praise. . . . . . . .he learns to be appreciative.

If a child lives with acceptance. . . . . . . .he learns to love.

If a child lives with approval. . . . . . . .he learns to like himself.

If a child lives with recognition . . . . . . . .he learns that it is good to have a goal.

If a child lives with honesty. . . . . . . .he learns what truth is.

If a child lives with fairness. . . . . . . .he learns justice.

If a child lives with security. . . . . . . .he learns to trust in himself and others .

If a child lives with friendliness. . . . . . . .he learns the world is a nice place in which to live.

[Isaac Schrödinger]

Laura: How true. Thanks for that.

[Classical Liberal]

That's the one--thanks, Laura.