Warning on Muslim schools 'abuse'

international | rights, freedoms and repression | other press

Wednesday March 22, 2006 14:44

by pat c

Its not just in Catholic schools that child abuse takes place, it also occurs in Muslim schools. Fortunately in Britain, some in the Muslim community have been prepared to stand up and demand that Islamic schools should have to face the same inspections and take the same precautions against child abuse as any other school.

This is also an issue in Ireland, already in one of the Islamic schools there has been a problem with the school spending too much time on Koranic studies. Islamic children also have a right to be protected against abuse. Anyone who is going into the schools should be vetted in the same as those who enter other schools. As Anne Cryer says below: "Failing to protect the children in madrasas because of 'cultural sensitivities' is nonsense - it is racist to differentiate between children and to fail to offer that protection "

Full story at the link.

pat

Warning on Muslim schools 'abuse'

Muslims could face a child abuse scandal on a par with the Catholic Church, a report has warned.

A group of Muslim leaders says the community is in denial about child abuse in religious schools, known as madrasas. The UK has about 700. They want ministers to regulate the schools, saying 100,000 children do not have appropriate legal protection.

The government said recent changes on the vetting of those teaching children automatically included madrasas. Most of the madrasas in the UK are attached to local mosques or Islamic institutions.

Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, co-author of the report and head of lobby group the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain, said that child abuse existed in all societies - and that it would be naïve of Muslim communities to think it did not affect them.

" Failing to protect the children in madrasas because of 'cultural sensitivities' is nonsense - it is racist to differentiate between children and to fail to offer that protection "

Ann Cryer MP