Author: Vijay Dutt
Publication: The Hindustan Times
Date: March 22, 2006
Some madrassas in Pakistan have been accused
of nurturing terrorists and suicide bombers, but the charge by Muslim leaders
in Britain that up to 100,000 of schoolchildren from the community are being
exposed to physical and sexual abuse by their religious teachers here every
year, has shocked the authorities.
The report into the Islamic education system
in this country said the Muslim children studying in 700 Britain's madrassas
were "at significant" risk of abuse. It said up to 40 per cent of
teachers in the madrassas hit or scold their pupils and between 15-20 cases
of sex abuse occur every year, which are generally suppressed.
Of the 700 madrassas almost a half use unlawful
corporal punishment to discipline pupils, the report said. The potential scale
of the abuse has led to fears among Muslim leaders in Muslim Parliament of
Great Britain (MPG) that mosque-based schools will face the kind of child
abuse claims that has recently scandalised the Roman Catholic Church.
Ghayasuddin Sidiqui of the MPG said that local
imams are not taking their duty to protect children seriously and exposing
young boys and girls to lasting hurt.
Dr Sidiqqui has urged the Government to establish
a national registration scheme for madrassas, co-ordinated centrally and monitored
by local authorities, to meet their legal obligations under The Children Act
1989. "Sweeping the issue of child abuse in UK madrassas under the carpet
is not a solution. If nothing is done now we may face an avalanche of child
sex-abuse scandals, decades afterwards, similar to those that had rocked the
Roman Catholic Church in the 1990s."
Ann Cryer MP, praising MP's stand said failing
to protect the children in madrassas because of "cultural sensitivities"
was nonsense.
