An unpleasant little story from India.
…a 12-year-old boy was allegedly chained by authorities of a local madrassa to prevent him from escaping from the school.
According to Medak town police, the boy has been studying in ‘Minhaj-ul-uloom’ religious school for the past three years and had earlier made several attempts to run away from the madrassa, as he was not a quick learner and had a stammering problem.
The police said that the madrassa management had chained the boy a few days ago to prevent him from escaping.
To prevent him from “escaping” – as if he were somehow legally obliged to be there.
“There is no compulsion in religion.” Oh really?
8 comments
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ibbica
October 7, 2012 at 11:12 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Well, not in real religion. Obviously you’re just cherry-picking an outlier. Obviously. Duh.
/snark
“…had earlier made several attempts to run away from the madrassa, as he was not a quick learner and had a stammering problem.“?
What the… What is… I don’t even… WHARRGARBLE…
I’m hoping that’s a bad translation?
Select
October 7, 2012 at 11:12 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
I’ve seen video taken in Pakistani Madrassas where all the boys were chained to their desks.
They were rocking back and forth like agitated schizophrenics while memorising the Koran.
Has to do with Allah’s endless bounty, or something.
Beatrice
October 7, 2012 at 11:19 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
ibbica,
Probably meaning “as he was harassed for his stammering and not being a quick learner”
Ophelia Benson
October 7, 2012 at 11:54 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Probably tormented by the mullah for stammering and being slow to memorize the Koran in a foreign language.
Armored Scrum Object
October 7, 2012 at 2:35 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Google tells me that India passed a compulsory education law in 2009, so it would seem to be the case that he is somehow legally obliged to be there. I’m actually surprised that it was so recent, considering that compulsory education for children is more the rule than the exception in the industrialized world. That being the case, I was a bit baffled by the quoted sentence. Am I misinterpreting something here?
Brad
October 7, 2012 at 4:22 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
And I thought American schools were too similar to prison…
barrypearson
October 8, 2012 at 12:15 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
(The Declaration is not binding on states).
lurker
October 8, 2012 at 1:51 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
‘”There is no compulsion in religion.” Oh really?’
There you go again, misunderestimating sophistimacated theology.
Here’s a few ways of interpreting just that phrase: http://www.opendemocracy.net/patricia-crone/no-compulsion-in-religion