Madrassa and Rogue Sharia Law - 4

by Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury

The mysterious kindergarten Madrassas:

(July 15, Dhaka, Sri Lanka Guardian) An extensive study was conducted on the existing kindergarten Madrassas in Bangladesh. All of them, having quite a handsome amount of expenditure each month for maintaining posh class rooms, air-conditioned transports and high standard accommodation for male and female students, could not show any acceptable source of income. For example, one of such Madrassas in Dhaka's Uttara area spends more than US$ 8000 per month while their income from student's tuition fee is less than US$ 2000. When asked about their source of income, Moulana Abdus Sakur, the principal of the institution said, they receive donation from Muslims abroad on a regular basis, which helps them to sustain. It was even revealed that, such institutions do not enroll with the Bureau of Non-government Organization [NGO]s in Bangladesh to declare their source of money. Rather any citizen in the country is entitled to establish a kindergarten Madrassa with a Trade License issued by the City Corporation just with an annual fee of US$ 10.

Talking to me, a senior official with NGO Bureau said, country's intelligence agencies have gathered substantial evidence of several kindergarten Madrassas receiving donations from foggy Afro-Arab sources. In many cases, these Madrassas invite 'speakers' from these countries for orientation course of certain period ranging between 2-6 weeks. Generally, those speakers are extremist Islamist scholars, preaching jihad and religious hatred to the innocent children. Such lectures are extremely hypnotizing, leaving great impact on the minds of children, who get allured towards suicide or jihad and killing Jews and Christians in exchange of heaven and 70 virgins during the next life.

Most alarming information on the Madrassas and kindergarten Madrassas is there is no monitoring by the government of Bangladesh on the activities of such religious institutions. Although the Education Ministry had been trying to bring them under enrollment for past several years, a large number of influential radical leaders are some how avoiding such enrolments for reason understandable.

A student in fifth grade with one of the kindergarten Madrassas said, "Islam is the ultimate for the entire world. We have to fight every enemies of our religion so that one day, the whole world will come under the umbrella of Islam. Allah promises us heaven if we fight and even embrace death in this holy task".

There is information on a hidden agenda of some of the kindergarten Madrassa preparing their adult female students for a particular group for a specific agenda named 'Operation Penetration'. Generally, girl students mostly from lower income group, having excellent looks are recruited for this purpose. They are given proper education to attain highest efficiency in speaking English, French, German or Spanish. Moreover, they get training in computer and various IT related works. These students are destined for various jobs in Western destinations with airline companies, IT companies, hotels, restaurants, large commercial enterprises and even in sensitive organizations. Once completed educational career, their back ground of having education in Madrassa are generally kept secret. Even some are given Christian names. There are several ways of 'penetrating' these well-trained females to western countries. One is as spouse of any male immigrants, by meeting targeted Western partners through internet or by taking the job of any kind of job in companies and secondly as tourists or performers/artistes. Prior to their departure to West, these girls are injected HIV positive virus. But, for making such 'sacrifice' generally their families receive US$ 5,000-10,000 as compensation. Main objective of these females, once already entered to the Western countries are to make friendly relations with men and ultimately establish physical relations, thus passing the virus. While on domestic job, they will push infected needles in the body of children at home, when their parents are out for work. Some of such females establish day care centers in the West, and continue to get the children infected to HIV virus mainly through needles. The 'operation penetration' has a target of infecting at least half million Westerners by the end of 2010. According to internal sources in the Madrassas, this is the latest technique of Islamist radicals in causing maximum degree of damage to the Western societies.

Madrassas in United States:

Despite a report by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom that the Islamic Saudi Academy in Alexandria, Va., has continued to use textbooks that teach hatred of everyone not of their specific brand of faith, the U.S. State Department has yet to act to close down the school. Officials of the academy, which has about 1,000 students in pre-kindergarten through grade 12, promised to excise passages in the textbooks that disparage Jews and Christians, but according to an examination by The Washington Post for the 2006-2007 school year, though “much of the controversial material had been removed, at least one book still contained passages that extolled jihad and martyrdom, called for victory over one's enemies and said the killing of adulterers and apostates was 'justified.'”

Once again, Islamic Saudi Academy officials have promised to clean up the text.

There are at least two questions that should be asked. One: are they telling us the truth this time? Probably not. Two: why do we allow such schools in our country when nothing close to a Christian, Jewish or even secular school would be permitted in Saudi Arabia, whose government specifically treats as contraband any religious text other than the Koran and prohibits even private worship of any God but Allah?

The Center for Islamic Pluralism [www.islamicpluralism.org], a Web site that bills itself as a voice of moderate Islam, quotes David D. Aufhauser, a former Treasury Department general counsel, who told a Senate committee four years ago that estimates of Saudi spending on these schools worldwide are “north of $75 billion.” The Center says that the money financed construction of thousands of mosques, schools and Islamic centers, the employment of at least 9,000 proselytizers and the printing of millions of books of religious instruction.

The Center for Islamic Pluralism says Saudi Arabia has a “pervasive influence on Islamic education in the United States [that] has led to the development of a new breed of American: the jihadist.”

One would be hard-pressed to find a greater threat to public health, safety and welfare than this training ground for a new generation of jihadists. The State Department isn't known for having a spine in such things. Does Fairfax County, or will it pretend it can take Saudi money without suffering consequences?

Inside Madrassas in United Kingdom:

Muslim children are being beaten and abused regularly by teachers at some British madrassas - Islamic evening classes - an investigation by influential British daily newspaper The Times has found.

Students have been slapped, punched and had their ears twisted, according to an unpublished report by an imam based on interviews with victims in the north of England. One was “picked up by one leg and spun around” while another said a madrassa teacher was “kicking in my head - like a football”, says the report which was compiled by Irfan Chishti, a former government adviser on Islamic affairs.

Almost 1,600 madrassas operate in Britain, teaching Arabic and the Koran on weekday evenings to about 200,000 children aged from four to their mid-teens.

While there is no hard evidence to indicate how many are involved in the physical abuse of children, The Times has uncovered a disturbing pattern in one town - Rochdale - through interviews with mainstream school teachers, Muslim parents and the children themselves.

One woman told The Times that her niece Hiba, 7, was slapped across the face so hard by her madrassa teacher that her ear was cut. It later became inflamed and she had to have emergency medical treatment.

When the teacher refused to apologise, Hiba's aunt, Jamila, insisted that her niece should be moved to another madrassa. “I have absolutely no respect for religious teachers who behave like this,” she said.

Another girl described how, at the age of 12, she was hit by her madrassa teacher whenever she mispronounced a word or forgot a verse of the Koran.

When Imam Chishti, a religious education teacher who also runs the Light of Islam Academy in Rochdale, decided to carry out his own investigation into the problem he was shocked by how even the victims had grown to accept the abuse. “They all joked about it,” he said. “There's a culture that accepts it.”

Imam Chishti said that part of the problem was that some madrassa teachers were ignorant of British law. Corporal punishment was banned in state schools in 1986 and in all schools in 1998. Under current law teachers acting in loco parentis may use only “reasonable punishment” such as a smack, providing it does not cause any marks or bruising.

But the abuse discovered by The Times investigation goes far beyond what could be termed “reasonable force”. One particularly brutal form of punishment practised in some madrassas is known as the Hen, in which the victim is forced to hold his ears while squatting with his arms fed through his legs.

The magnitude of the problem in Rochdale has led primary school head teachers to break the silence surrounding the problem. Several disclosed that they had asked social services to investigate complaints of physical abuse in madrassas made by pupils but that the victims' parents refused to press charges against the perpetrators either because they felt that physical abuse was normal practice or they feared being ostracised by their community.

Tina Wheatley, deputy head of Heybrook Primary School, said: “If a child comes in with an injury of any sort and it's non-accidental, then schools will refer it to parents, then also to child protection.”

But she said that social workers were often faced by parents who refused to take action against the abusers. “When child protection turns up at the parents' [home], parents don't want to take it any further. There are a lot of head teachers in this area who have spoken to the authorities. It's so sensitive,” she said.

Sandra Hartley, head teacher at Brimrod County Primary School in Rochdale, where 93 per cent of pupils are Muslim, said that she feared that some Muslim parents regarded physical beatings as normal because they had been subjected to the same treatment when they were children.

“You know, it's very much accepted that children are experiencing that type of coercion, unfair treatment and sometimes physical abuse,” she said. “Parents knowing that this is happening and not wanting to move their child from that type of extra-curricular activity is very much the pattern that we have here.”

The Times has also learnt that Rochdale police and social services have met local Muslim leaders six times this year to discuss child protection issues after investigations prompted by claims of physical abuse at madrassas.

Terry Piggott, the executive director of Rochdale Borough Council, admitted that it was difficult for the authorities to take action.

“Because of the rapid turnover of volunteer teachers at madrassas - and the fact that many are part-time - it makes it difficult to regulate and monitor the people who are working with local young people,” he said in a statement.

The problem is not confined to Rochdale. Ann Cryer, Labour MP for the Yorkshire constituency of Keighley which has a large Muslim population, said that mainstream teachers had complained to her about the punishment their students faced at madrassas. She added her voice to those from Muslim community calling for madrassas to be brought within the regulatory framework.“I think we should have some sort of review at a very high level as to how madrassas are being [run] ... they seem to be a law unto themselves,” she said.

Madrassas and similar religious classes are not subject to any regulation nor are their teachers required to be vetted by the Criminal Records Bureau. Many madrassas are not even known to the authorities because they are run on an ad hoc basis by people in their own living rooms. Even those attached to a mosque which is registered with the Charities Commission are not monitored.

Ms Cryer called for the authorities to be given powers to perform “spot checks” on madrassas and shut down any in which children are being abused.“As the Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities grow so do the number of madrassas and therefore the risk to children increases every year,” she said.

The Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board [Minab] - a government approved organisation established in 2006 - has set up a minimum standard for mosques which includes guidelines to safeguard child welfare. However, membership is purely voluntary and Minab has yet to recruit a single mosque.

A spokesman for the board, Yousif Al-Khoei, admitted that some mosques were run by teachers who may be abusing children.
“There is of course a minority of madrassas which have a village mindset who may be practising it but you have to look at it from both angles,” he said. “No community is perfect.”

The Minister for Community Cohesion, Sadiq Khan, urged his fellow Muslims to turn in those responsible for violence against children.

“We need to have religious leaders saying in clear and religious messages that it's unacceptable and that there's no place in Islam for child abuse. It's pure village culture mentality,” he said. “Everybody should expose this. The neighbours who know about it should expose it, the teachers [at mainstream schools] should expose it. We need a culture which says that whistleblowing on these things is a badge of pride not a badge of shame.”

He added: “We are hiding behind the defence of cultural sensitivities and our children are not being protected.”

The Department for Children, Schools and Families said: “We're crystal clear that all organisations, including faith-based, must abide by children protection and safeguarding laws.

“Any actions that go beyond reasonable punishment are absolutely unacceptable and must be dealt with the courts. We urge anyone who is aware of such incidents to report them to the police and relevant authorities.”

Commenting on the situation, Head of Muslim Parliament in Britain wrote in the British newspaper Times, “Child protection legislation may as well not exist for Muslims who operate and teach at some of Britain's 1,600 or so madrassas, or Islamic schools. For such people, who either consciously flout the law or are completely ignorant of it, beating children is not a form of abuse but a method of enforcing discipline.

“It may surprise many people to find that, unlike schools and other institutions dealing with children, madrassas are not subject to government regulation. The situation is compounded as even many mosque-run madrassas are not registered with anyone.”

“A recent survey by the Charity Commission found that 11per cent of mosques in London were unregistered. Travel north to the Midlands and that figure mushrooms to 70 per cent. But even the registration of mosques is limited in the type of protection that it offers children, because, while registration ensures random checks by the commission, it does not ensure the regulation of madrassas within the mosques.”

“Only two years ago my organisation, the Muslim Parliament, published a report to highlight the problem of child abuse in madrassas, including the mentality that holds such abuse as a taboo subject that is best kept quiet. We said then that too many members of the community seemed more interested in protecting it from embarrassment than in ensuring the wellbeing of innocent and voiceless children.”

“The report highlighted that up to 40 per cent of madrassas exclude uncooperative pupils, and its estimate of 15-20 cases a year of sexual abuse was considered an understatement. Those parents whose children are abused remain silent for fear of being ostracised by their community or stigmatised by mainstream Britain.”

“I recall a conversation with a former madrassa pupil who emphasised the importance of the schools in Muslim life. But when I asked him whether he would send his son to one, he answered without hesitation: “No.” Then he opened up about the physical abuse he was subjected to by madrassa teachers.”

“The Children Act 2004 places the responsibility for protecting and promoting the welfare of children on local safeguarding children boards that include local health authorities and the police. The Department for Children, Schools and Families lays down the guidelines for how such agencies should cooperate to protect children within the framework of Working Together to Safeguard Children.”

“Many local safeguarding children boards have begun to engage the faith and voluntary sector and have organised workshops and training courses in their respective areas. However, it seems that these activities have been attended by only a handful of mosque and madrassa organisations.”

“In the absence of a national register of mosques and madrassas, it is difficult to say what percentage of them have taken advantage of these provisions and have gone on to put in place child protection policy and procedures in their own madrassas. I am not sure how many madrassas have even done Criminal Record Bureau checks on staff who routinely deal with children.”

“Some charities and local authorities are taking the initiative. Kirklees Council has produced Safe Children Sound Learning - Guidance for Madressahs which has proved an excellent resource for propagating good practice. There is a need for such resources to be made widely available, backed by effective training programmes delivered by local safeguarding children boards.”

“Sadly for the 200,000 children in Britain who attend madrassas, however, the situation will not improve and may even get worse unless new laws are introduced to ensure that every madrassa is regulated by a government body. Such laws could force the closure of madrassas in breach of the Child Protection Act. Until then, children who attend madrassas, whether those connected to mosques or one of the many makeshift varieties operating from people's homes, will remain at significant risk of physical and sexual harm.”

Physical and sexual abuse by Islamist clergies:

Case – 1 [Pakistan]: In June 2004, when five-year-old Talha did not return from the Lajna mosque in Lahore, where he had gone to take Quranic lessons from Maulvi [clergy] Mohammad Altaf, his mother went to fetch him. She found the boy in the corridor of the mosque, bleeding and unconscious; the Maulvi was missing from the mosque. A case was duly lodged. Altaf was subsequently arrested and Tahla identified him as the person who had sodomised him.

The family was determined to pursue the case. But soon different religious groups began to mount pressure on them to drop the case; the family was even told that these "Maulvis have links with Al Qaeda". Pressure was, apparently, also brought upon the police. The family ultimately relented in July, agreeing to not pursue their case and withdrawing their witnesses.

Case – 2 [Pakistan]: Sanam, 9, daughter of Mohammad Saleh Kori, a resident of the Microwave Colony, Sukkur, Sind, was a student of Abdul Wahid Chachar's Madrassa. On February 15, 2004, at the end of her classes, Maulvi Abdul Wahid told her that she was his wife and would have to live with him. Sanam rushed out to tell her parents about the incident. When her father went to the Madrassa to complain, Abdul produced a Nikahnama [Marriage Certificate] bearing Mohammad Saleh Kori and his daughter's signatures.

The father-daughter had been tricked into appending their signature to the marriage document. Apparently, the Maulana had asked them to sign on a form, claiming it would enable the family to receive zakat [charity money]. The illiterate father, obviously, couldn't distinguish between a zakat form and a Nikahnama. Worse, the local Chachar tribesmen began pressuring him to hand over 9-year old Sanam to the Islamist Clergy.

Although according to existing law in the world, marrying a 9-year old girl is against the laws and considered to be serious crime, many of the Muslim clergies continued to pass sermons giving legalization to marrying of infants.

Case – 3 [India]: Shaheeruddin, chief of the Bodh Gaya-based residential Madrassa was sent to jail on July 25, 2008 on charges of sodomy.

The madrassa chief was arrested late on Thursday evening on the complaint of a 13-year-old madrassa inmate who said that Shaheeruddin had been sodomizing him for about six weeks against his wishes.

Irfan [name changed], the victim, a resident of Malmal village of Madhubani district, along with his guardian, met senior police officials at the Janata Durbar on Thursday to register complaint against the Madrassa chief.

According to the Bodh Gaya DSP Rajvansh Singh, on the instruction of senior police officials, the victim was examined by Dr. Sartaj Khan at the Anugrah Narain Magadh Medical College and Hospital.

During the medical examination, the doctor found signs of sodomy on the victim's body. The victim told police officials that though Shaheeruddin had been sodomizing him for the last several weeks, the last time it was done was on July 20, 2008.

After initial hesitation, the victim revealed his trauma to one of his Madrassa mates and then went back home to narrate the story to his family elders, who in turn complained to the police.

The Bodh Gaya DSP said that after medical confirmation of the sodomy charge, the police picked up the Madrassa chief. A case under Section 377 has been instituted against the Madrassa chief.

Section 377 says "Whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal shall be punished with imprisonment with life, or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to 10 years, and shall also be liable to fine."

The news of the Madrassa chief's arrest was received in Bodh Gaya with shocked disbelief, as Shaheeruddin is considered to be an influential person in the area.

The Madrassa, housing hundreds of poor children from different parts of the state, is run on charity and Shaheeruddin is regarded as the main resource mobilizer for the Madrassa where the inmates are supposed to receive religious education with an emphasis on pious conduct.

Hundreds of supporters of the Madrassa chief laid a siege around the Bodh Gaya police station demanding immediate release of the accused. The Madrassa chief's supporters said the charges were cooked up by the Madrassa boy who, according one of the supporters of the Madrassa chief was earlier awarded corporal punishment by the institution head.

Case-4 [Brunei]: Hearing of a sodomy case facing a Madrassa teacher who is alleged to have sodomized five of his students between the age of eight and 10 starts on March 25 at the Kisutu Resident Magistrate's Court in Dar es Salaam.

The accused, Mohamed Hatimu (28), is appearing before Resident Magistrate Hadija Msongo.

Prosecutor Nassoro Sewaya told the court On February 1, 2008 that investigation into the case had been completed and asked the court to set a hearing date. Sewaya said he would call 16 witnesses to testify.

Hatimu is alleged to have committed the offence between April and June 2007 at Mwanayamala in the city. The accused is out on bail.

Case – 5 [Pakistan]: When, on the morning of 21 February 2007, a bearded man walked up to a woman and asked 'Why aren't you wearing proper Islamic dress?' he was not looking for an answer. It was just a rhetorical question because, before the woman could respond, he had pumped a bullet into her head which killed her.

The woman – dressed so traditionally that only her face was visible – was Zill-e-Huma, who at the time was addressing a public meeting in her capacity as Social Welfare Minister of Pakistan's largest province, Punjab.

After shooting the Minister, Hafiz Muhammad Sarwar calmly stood his ground, allowed the police to arrest him and said loud and clear: he had killed the Minister because, as a good Muslim, she was supposed to be staying inside her home and not ruling men. The rule of women, said Hafiz Muhammad Sarwar, was anti-Islamic. Women seen outside the home are evil. 'I have killed her out of conviction that she was leading an un-Islamic life and spreading an evil influence on other women.'

He also proudly claimed that in the past five years he had killed twelve prostitutes and seriously injured dozens more for being immoral women: 'One immoral woman will cause one hundred men to go to hell in the hereafter; hence no immoral woman should be left to stay alive.'

The police officers there confirmed that Hafiz Muhammad was a well-known prostitute-killer. When asked what would happen to his children, he replied: 'I am not worried about the future of my children. I have killed the women in line with God's commandments and He will take care of my children.'

Hafiz Muhammad Sarwar, a Wahhabi by religious persuasion, started his 'divine mission' on the night of 3 November 2002 when he shot Dabbi, a poor prostitute. Within six months he had killed half-a-dozen prostitutes and hurt many more in Lahore and Gujranwala, and came to be known as 'Serial Killer'. At the time of his arrest in 2004 he proudly confessed to having killed 'immoral' prostitutes. His favourite method of attack was to knife or shoot the prostitutes just above the crotch. If they survived the attack they would be paralyzed or permanently disabled [which actually happened].

But he was never punished, because his affluent Islamist friends and patrons took care of the murder witnesses and the relations of the prostitutes, either by paying them the Shari'a-sanctioned blood money, or by simply terrorizing them. During his incarceration he was examined by a noted psychiatrist who pronounced him 'normal' but religiously fanatical. Thus, after spending one year in jail, he was a free man. His patrons helped him set up in business as a locksmith, and he enjoyed the reputation of an honest, clean man.

Case – 6 [Pakistan] : A religious seminar student Muhammad Asif [12] was scarred with hot iron for refusing to have sexual intercourse [sodomy] with the teacher of Madrassa, Abdul Rashid, who injured his private parts in anger. The incident took place in December 2005.

Meanwhile, a Madrassa teacher and two other were jailed awaiting trial in Karachi, Pakistan for an acid attack on a 14-year-old boy after he refused to have sexual intercourse with the cleric. The boy was blinded and badly injured. In 2004, Pakistani officials stunned the nation by officially disclosing more than 500 complaints of sexual assaults against young Madrassa students in that country.

Due to increase of influence of Talibans and Madrassa educated population in the Muslim nations, series of new laws are being created under the garb of Sharia Law in a number of Muslim nations. In most cases, such Sharia Laws are very much against the codes of civilized society practices.

For example, let us have a glimpse on the existing marriage law in Islamic Republic of Iran. In Iran, marriage law has become extremely complicated, confusing and mostly against the rights of women. Let me begin with a quote from a fatwa by the late and unlamented Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran, where the readers will possibly understand the state of mind of the Islamist clergies on this particular issue:

"A man can marry a girl younger than nine years of age, even if the girl is still a baby being breastfed. A man, however is prohibited from having intercourse with a girl younger than nine, other sexual acts such as foreplay, rubbing, kissing and sodomy is allowed.

A man having intercourse with a girl younger than nine years of age has not committed a crime, but only an infraction, if the girl is not permanently damaged. If the girl, however, is permanently damaged, the man must provide for her all her life. But this girl will not count as one of the man's four permanent wives. He also is not permitted to marry the girl's sister."

Other forms of sexual abuse inflicted on children by Muslim clergies include fondling of genitals, coercing a child to fondle the abuser's genitals, masturbation with the child as either participant or observer, oral sex, anal or vaginal penetration by penis, finger or any other object.

Another technique used by Muslim clergies is called "thighing". The child's legs are pressed together and the abuser inserts his penis between the thighs of the little boy or girl. This was approved of by Ayatollah Khomeini who in his Little Green Book asserted “It is not illegal for an adult male to 'thigh' or enjoy a young girl who is still in the age of weaning; meaning to place his penis between her thighs, and to kiss her.”

Full text of rulling by Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini on marriage:

"A woman may legally belong to a man in one of two ways; by continuing marriage or temporary marriage. In the former, the duration of the marriage need not be specified; in the latter, it must be stipulated, for example, that it is for a period of an hour, a day, a month, a year, or more."

"A man can marry a girl younger than nine years of age, even if the girl is still a baby being breastfed. A man, however is prohibited from having intercourse with a girl younger than nine, other sexual act such as foreplay, rubbing, kissing and sodomy is allowed. A man having intercourse with a girl younger than nine years of age has not committed a crime, but only an infraction, if the girl is not permanently damaged. If the girl, however, is permanently damaged, the man must provide for her all her life. But this girl will not count as one of the man's four permanent wives. He also is not permitted to marry the girl's sister."

... Continued

Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury is the editor of Weekly Blitz.