I know pretty soon I will hear from people in this forum to tell me that religion is not to blame for any of these acts; only a few 'misguided ones' are to blame for this barbaric act. Those who will praise religion will perhaps shout out from their cozy sofas to punish the people involved, etc., etc., but nothing will change - because they have no power to change anything. Religion is under the control of those so called 'misguided ones,' and nobody knows what they will come up with next. Nobody can touch any of those misguided ones. I think a year or two back, we heard about the 'stoning of women' in Bangladesh resulting from a 'fotwa,' awarded by a mollah. Media buried the incident as quickly as they could. I am not sure anything happened to the orchestrator of that incident, and I am sure nothing will happen to the individual(s) involved in this incident also.
Recent reports tell me that even Awami League government is opting for promoting more religion (Islam), and less secularism, in peoples' lives. This is how strong the religious cartels are. I feel pity for the innocent regular folks of Bangladesh, who are, basically, slaves of the religious cartels. It appears that there is no one to liberate them. They need authentic secular education, and there is no leader to provide that. So, they suffer, and remain impoverished ....
Jiten Roy
--- On Thu, 5/3/12, Farida Majid <farida_majid@hotmail.com> wrote:
From: Farida Majid <farida_majid@hotmail.com> Subject: [mukto-mona] RE: Child Abuse under Islamic cover : Fire of hell is hotter ....... To: Date: Thursday, May 3, 2012, 7:21 PM
Let us think deeply about the future of our citizenry and BAN political madrassahs that are there only to indoctrinate economically deprived underclass.. Only those certified Madrassahs will be allowed where top quality religious education is seriously pursued. All other countries and religions have religious schools where future priests study for a lifetime dedicated to the service of God. Why can't we have something like that?
Can we organize a protest march against Madrassah cruelty?
Date: Thu, 3 May 2012 18:56:36 -0400 Subject: Child Abuse under Islamic cover : Fire of hell is hotter ....... From: syed.aslam3@gmail.com To: khabor@yahoogroups.com; notun_bangladesh@yahoogroups.com; chottala@yahoogroups.com
Madrasa teacher Jesmin Akhterdemonstrates lesson of hell to 14 girls
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Front Page
The hot spatula mark on a girl's leg inflicted by her madrasa teacher to give her a bit of experience of the hell for not offering prayers regularly. 14 girls were made victim of this brutal idea. Photo: Courtesy ATN BanglaStaff Correspondent
A teacher of a girls' madrasa on Tuesday seared legs of 14 students with a hot spatula in her punitive attempt to make them feel the "agony of fire in hell".
The girls, aged between eight and 12, underwent the hellish experience as they were "irregular" in their prayers. They are students of Talimul Quran Mahila Madrasa at Namashyampur in the capital's Kadamtali area.
The victims received treatment at local clinics for the injuries on their left legs.
Teacher Jesmin Akhter went into hiding after father of a victim had filed a case, said Sub-inspector Shaker Mohammad Jubair of Kadamtali police.
Abdul Jalil, father of victim Jannatul Ferdous, 8, told The Daily Star that after a 10-day holiday the madrasa reopened on Tuesday and his daughter attended the class at 8:00am.
Informed by another guardian, he rushed to the institution around 1:30pm and met a gathering of protesting locals.
Jalil quoting his daughter said Jesmin inflicted burns on the 14 students at around 8:30am for not being "regular" in offering their prayers during the vacation.
During her act of "punishment" Jesmin was quoted as asking the victims if they knew the severity of the fire in hell. If they didn't say their prayers regularly, they would experience such torment in hell, she added.
Jalil said the teacher kept her spatula on a burning gas oven adjacent to the classroom and each time burned the legs of three students.
The madrasa is housed on the first floor of a two storey building. Of the four rooms in the flat, the teacher lives in one room with her family while one room is used as the office and the rest for classes. Students attend their classes here sitting on the floor.
Jesmin also forced the wounded students to continue with the classes untill 1:15pm when mother of a student went to the madrasa with meal for her daughter, police said.
Agitating locals immediately besieged the madrasa, but police intervened and brought the situation under control, said SI Jubair.
Neither guardians nor the police could confirm immediately whether the madrasa is approved by the government.
