Allied Apostates of Islam

 

Afghan Convert and my thoughts about Islam by 'Sujit Das'

This article is written in connection with Abdul Rahaman, who rejected Islam for Christianity, his strong determination not to give up under pressure and fear of death, his ultimate release and the recent interest of Afghan Muslims in Christianity.

Ansarullah Mawlazezadah, Afghan trial judge had left no stones unturned to prove that Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance. He had given Abdul a chance to return to Islam and only be killed if he refused. But Abdul refused to return back to slavery. Unlike many other Muslims he knows the real meaning of freedom. Bible had given him enough strength to stand alone against the Islamic government of Afghanistan. Freedom is his birthright. 

The Afghan bloodthirsty mullahs had tried their best to tear "Rahman to pieces" but Allah could not fulfill their wishes as international infidel pressure was too strong and Rahaman was too determined to keep his faith. So he was declared mentally unfit to stand trial. Reliable sources from Afghanistan indicate something else -- Rahman was depressed, but surely not mentally unfit. 

Well, I don't want to question the professional competency of the medical doctor, let that be a secret, but it was the only way to "get rid of the shame" of keeping a person like Rahaman alive. After all because of people like him, Islam is in danger.  

I salute this enlightened man. He is a burning example for many others, who are still in the slavery. This incident is like a wake-up call for them. 

His successful journey to Italy is not the end of the story. In fact it is the beginning of the story. Today, many Afghan Muslims have started showing interest in Christianity. Tomorrow they will demand freedom, which is their birthright. A true religion makes a soul free. Religious freedom is the basic minimum legal sanction in a civilized society. 

But unfortunately, Islam does not belong to that class. Like many underworld criminal organization, the strength of Islam is based on 'fear' and 'slavery'. If anyone wants to be free from this slavery, then Islam takes it as an open challenge. Islam does not want to honor their slaves with freedom. Like hardcore criminals Islam will collapse and destroy itself but it will never reform. 

Today, most of the underworld mafias control their business by this way. They enslave people by instilling fear into their mind. Fear is such, which cannot be removed from the mind so easily, even after the cause of the fear is vanished. As example, take the case of notorious underworld Muslim mafia leader from India, Dawood Ibrahim. Dawood is notorious of his money extortion crime. Presently this Muslim criminal is given shelter by Pakistan. Today, he is just like a puppet in the hands of Pakistan government. Rich businessmen, political leaders and movie actors from India are still very afraid of him. Everybody knows that he is powerless, everybody wants to say that but nobody wants to take the first step. The fear factor works here - what may happen to me if I underestimate him?  What may happen to me, if I wrongly imagine that Dawood is powerless? Similarly a Muslim fears hellfire. He knows very well from the very deep bottom of his mind that scientifically hellfire cannot exist, but again the deep-rooted fear works wonder in his mind - what may happen to me if hellfire is true, though there is no proof? 

Today what is required is critical evaluation and healthy reasoning. Muslims have to remove the fear from their mind.  For this they need an open mind. Generally, common Muslims are less educated than non-muslims. This is a big disadvantage. Uneducated persons are more prone to superstitions.

With an open mind if the Muslims ask few questions to themselves the truth will come out automatically. From the Koran and hadith it is crystal clear that Muhammad was more like an underworld criminal and less like a prophet. Prophet allowed Muslims to tell lie for the advancement of Islam. Then how do you know that the Prophet himself did not tell you lie for attracting more followers?  

If Koran and hadith is right then Prophet was a hardcore criminal. If Prophet was the real messenger of God then Koran and Hadith must be wrong, because the True God of mankind cannot be so cruel and stupid (I mean the great Koranic contradictions).  Three pillars of Islam are Islamic god Allah, the religious book Koran, and the messenger of Allah, ie, Muhammad. It is like a three-legged table - just remove one leg and the table cannot stand any more. By proper reasoning, it can be proved that all three of them are wrong. Then where is the credibility of Islam? 

If everything is Allah-willing, then the prosperity of nonmuslim western world is also Allah-willing, is not it? If there are 1.2 billion people believe in Allah, then there are about 5 billion people on this earth who does not bother about Allah's blessings. The achievements of nonmuslims are more than Muslims - this is also Allah-willing. So can we come to a conclusion that Allah loves nonmuslims more than Muslims?               

Today Afghan mullahs are eager to tear "Rahman to pieces", but how many of them had read the Afghan history? Till 10th century Afghanistan was a Hindu nation. It is Afghans, who fought hard against Muslim invaders and died in millions in the battlefield to save their land. Do they know what the name of the mountain range Hindukush stands for? Hindukush means Hindu slaughter. This is the name given by the Muslim invaders to the mountain range, which were close to the battlefields. Many Afghan women and children during those days were forced to slavery after the brutal murder of the male members of their family. 

With more and more questions like these are asked the bitter truth about Islam will come out slowly. Islam will be exposed. Then Islam will be a serious laughing matter to the Muslims themselves and that will be first step towards freedom. Today all Muslims should realize these facts. The sooner the better. Just take out the fear from your mind and critically analyze the teachings of Koran and Hadith. Ask few questions to yourself and search for the answer. The hollowness if Islam will be crystal clear in front of you. 

Today media does not have the courage to tell the truth. A reporter thinks, if I publish such news, radical Muslims may attack my family or me, may be the circulation of the newspaper will come down, may be I will lose my job. The same fear factor works here.

But, I think this attitude is changing. In fact, I think that it is the Islamic terrorists, who are actually showing the real dirty face of Islam to the whole world. After every suicide bomb blast, the educated people are pointing directly towards the religion Islam, itself -- instead of blaming the attackers. I feel it is very much required. As an example, if a child steals in the school, it is the parents of the child who are most of the time blamed for the wrong action of their children (look, what is the fault of the child, his parents did not teach him some moral values). This type of thinking will help the peace loving Muslims to give a second thought about their die-hard faith. 

Today Islam is more like a 'business' and less like a 'religion'. The mullahs sell 'the blessings of Allah' and a 'secured position in Islamic heaven'. Their asset is 'Allah, Muhammad and Koran'. Based on these three, their business always gives good profit.  Their business ethics is exploitation (same as life-insurance. here also 'fear of death' and the 'lucrative financial benefits after death' are two motivating factors). If the fear factor is taken out, both Islamic business and life-insurance business will collapse. Tell an insurance agent that life is much safer now -- he will strongly disagree, though he knows that he is wrong. Tell a mullah that hellfire and Islamic heaven with virgins and all those are unscientific --- he will strongly disagree. Even he may advice Muslims to harm you for the fear of losing his business. Like mullahs, the life insurance agents are very rich. Many people try to avoid them, while many people want extra life insurance. Same reason is applicable for Muslims. Life insurance agents bark upon the same thing and always pessimistic. They never see the good side of lives. How many people are dying by road accidents each year, they will always tell you the statistics, but why they don't tell you that cars of today are much safer than before and roads are better? Moreover why they don't want to advice you that instead of spending so much on life insurance, why not take some extra precautions while driving or at least while crossing the roads. In the same way, why not the mullahs advice people to stay at the right path and Islam (the way it is preached) is not that right path. Why they do not tell common Muslims that a hateful book like Koran cannot be from the true god of mankind? Why they cannot preach that another great prophet had said -- forgive them, because they don't know what they are doing?

They will run out of business if they do so. The insurance agent thinks -- to hell with common people as long as they insure their life with me. Same way the mullahs think -- to hell with the common innocent Muslims, as long as they like my teachings and fill up my pocket by donating handsomely in the mosque where I preach.

And, during this time, when the business seems to be going well; some enlightened people like Abdul Rahaman surface from somewhere and stand right on the way of this profitable business. Naturally the mullahs are mad. Hence kill Abdul Rahaman and other Muslims will learn from it - the business should run. If more Muslims follow the path of Abdul Rahaman, there is a loss of business in Mecca as 'hajj pilgrims will also be less'. 

Mullahs tell common Muslims to memorize Koran but send their children to universities for higher studies. You do not have to believe me, just check by yourself. You will be surprised. While common Muslims are brainwashed for a suicide mission, tell me, how many mullahs are ready to send their sons and daughters for such an act.  
Common Muslims can starve because 'everything is Allah willing' and at the same time mullahs have enough money to purchase the best house for him because again 'everything is Allah willing '. What mullahs are doing today is nothing more than what their prophet had done. Prophet Muhammad did not follow the Koran.  
 
Mullahs promise common Muslims of Islamic heavenly never-ending afterlife, but they want to enjoy heavenly pleasure right now, here, on earth. 
 
This is the pure Islamic business ethics. No business can run on exploitation for longer time. It is applicable for Islam also. That is the time the mullah - monopoly will cease to exist and nobody will be there to protect Islamic business. Mullahs are the last keepers of Islam.


I can see a silver lining in the dark cloud. Many more enlightened Muslims like Abdul Rahaman will come out with time. In fact they are struggling to come out from this bondage and slavery. They are not small in number; also they are growing very fast. Only problem is that they are not united. Most of the times their voices are unheard by others. With the advancement of Internet, many more organizations like FFI will appear and these ex-muslim groups will be stronger and more united. They will get morale support and strength from each other. The keepers of Islam will try their best to stop this movement but in vain. A barrage of sand cannot stop a devastating flood. 'Success belongs to those who dare to be different'. That will be end of 1400 years old slavery and injustice.


 

 

A fate worse than death by 'Sujit Das'

[A word of caution: This article contains information concerning extreme inhuman brutality against children and serious breach of human rights. I am worried; this article may upset many readers. But every word of this article reveals truth and truth is sometimes very ugly. I have a great respect for the readers of Islam-watch. Please forgive me if this article brings tears in your eyes and gives you a couple of sleepless nights lamenting over those innocent helpless little slaves in Islamic nations. 


Please remember, hypothetically or by birth, if tomorrow Islam rules the world, neither your children nor my children will be safe. Let’s learn from the past and present, and plan for the future before it is too late. Thank you.]  


In Middle East, calling someone by the term “Camel Jockey” is a big insult. It means that the targeted person has very little or no education, defenseless and worth for nothing. Though this term is very often used there, many people who use them are sometimes unaware of the origin of this term, while others prefer to remain silent, because in Middle East, it is too risky to displease the oil rich Arab sheikhs who run the traditional royal sport of camel racing. 


If we hunt for the origin of this term, another ugly face of Islam will be exposed, about which very less had been talked or written so far.  


Slavery is nothing new in Islam. Muhammad, the so-called Prophet of Islam used to make an excellent regular profit from slave trade (Silas, 1998). The followers of Prophet Muhammad have continued this age old “Islamic” tradition till this time secretly in Middle East. In fact, slavery and Islam are so much consistent that they are inseparable with each other.  


Brutal victimization of innocent children for the purpose of financial gain or simple pleasure is a shame on the name of humanity; but it is an “open secret” and daily phenomenon in Middle East where small children are regularly being forced to work as camel jockeys (Video links, 1 to 6).  


Considerable research and media attention had been paid to various forms of child oppression in recent years throughout the world. In civilized countries, governments commit themselves to the protection of all the rights of the children – both socially and economically. In many countries the cost of education of children is taken over by central governments because it is universally believed by civilized world that every child has the right to an adequate education and standard of living (Donoghue, 1998). It also helps to protect the children from economic exploitation and work that may interfere with education or damage their health. Unfortunately, the Arab nations of Middle East region do not fall to that category. No matter what the civilized world thinks and does, the heavily rich but morally bankrupt Arab Sheikhs just give ‘two hoots’ to the basic rights of children. Mentally they still belong to the seventh century – the time and age of their Prophet; and unable to advance further. 


Camel racing is a very popular sport in Middle East. Like horse racing in many countries, camel racing is an event for betting and tourist attraction. In some places where betting on the races are illegal; the winners receive many different prizes, many times in the form of luxury cars, mansions, yachts, cash and gold sword – this is just another form of gambling (Roger, 2003, Hejaz, 2002). 


Race distances vary between 4 to 10 kilometers and may include anywhere from 15 to 70 camels or more (Hejaz, 2002). The Sheikhs of the UAE invest large sums of money into the development of camel racing throughout the Emirates, in addition to putting cash into the buying and training of camels in order to participate themselves in the races. Their interest and dedication is so much that they appoint specialists from all over the world with the primary goal of improving racing camel performance. The camels are of specialized breed for this purpose (Anon, 2006). These animals are not treated like animals and are well-nourished, well trained, taken good care of and are very costly. Their harts are often air-conditioned. Sheikh Mohammed, the whimsical crown prince of Dubai and the United Arab Emirates Minister of Defense even constructed a pool for his camels (Selby, 2004). 


Then, what about the jockeys? 


The little kids, who are used as jockeys are strapped into their saddles to keep them from slipping off the charging camels. Sometimes Velcro or adhesive tapes are used as an alternative (Voice of America, 2005). One of the ‘advantages’ of using child jockeys is that their terrified painful cries make the camels run even faster. Accidents are very frequent when the camels approach speeds of up to 40 kilometers an hour. Every now and then the kids fall off the camels and the camels run over their bodies. No wonder every second or third child is seen with a broken arm or broken leg (ABWT, 2004). It is a living hell for the children. These tiny slaves, working and dying for the pleasures of rich Arab Sheikhs are sometimes as young as two (Wikipedia, 2006). They face a fate which is worse than death.  

These children have to undergo a rigorous training schedule. It means working for about eighteen hours a day without payment. There is no holiday for them. Most jockeys only have a sheet on the sand for a bed and basic shelter. They have to work seven days a week in heats that even the local people shelter from (ABWT, 2004). Those who fall asleep are given electric shocks (in local language, this is called – giving a “KARBA”) as a wake up call (ABWT, 2005, Video Link 5). If they are tired and unable to carry out the orders of the trainer, they are tied in chains and mercilessly beaten. Often, if they cry for their parents, they are tied up by the wrists with their feet dangling in the air and their tender bodies are kicked as a punishment, (Selby, 2004). The rescued children reported many stories of cruelty, as example, being tied up in chains in the desert heat, beaten with metal rods and leather whips, cut with blades and being raped by their “owners” (ABWT, 2005). Other punishments include couple of days without food. They are often told by their trainers a story about being unwanted and being sold by their parents into slavery. They have no legal status and no one to protect them.  


One nine year old rescued boy described that every week he used to see by his own eyes the deaths of about 20 children, and more than a dozen injured. He said "There was this one kid whose strap broke at the beginning of the race. His head was crushed between the legs of the running camel. Once the race has started it cannot stop” (ABWT, 2005). 


They are deliberately starved to prevent weight gain. Many of these children are fed with only two dry biscuits, or half dirty bread a day with water just to keep body and soul together (Selby, 2004). Some of them are not even that lucky. To reduce body weight, the owners often force the kids to wear metal helmets and leave them under the boiling heat of the desert so that they bleed through their noses and lose their body weight. Another method of keeping them underweight is to force them to eat dirty and unhygienic food with seawater. The hope is that an upset stomach will stop the child from feeling hungry (ABWT, 2005). This saves the cost of the food and also keeps the kid underweight. Many of these children, who cannot tolerate this torture just collapse and die.  

What type of nutrition do the camels get? 


Well, nobody can accuse these rich Arabs for cruelty against animals. They are too kind for the racing camels and leave no stone unturned to bring nutritional specialists from all over the world at any cost, and to run the camel feed mills to create well-balanced and highly nutritional diets. High fiber diets, including oats and barley in addition to vitamin supplements and trace elements, are standard for racing camels (Anon, 2006). The feeding and dieting programme is modified from time to time with expert’s opinion and new developments of dietary science. 


Most of these ill-fated children are trafficked from countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sudan -- countries bound together by poverty and corruption (dpa, 2000). Many of them are not just abducted or trafficked victims. They are sold away by their parents in exchange of money. Many orphans are sold by the relatives. Many of them are kidnapped from affluent families. One day the child goes outside to play and never returns back home (Video Links, 2 & 6). 


Due to better awareness of the issue, internet and lobbying by human rights associations such as the Ansar Burney Welfare Trust - the use of children in this dirty sport is prohibited in Arab countries by law. But secretly this traditional slave business of Islam is still continued in the remote areas and during special night time races with selected viewers (Video Links, 3 & 4). It is impossible to enforce the law strictly, because, generally who own the camels also are the head of the states and also due to high corruption. In Arab countries, the law serves the elite classes and turns a blind eye to their wrong actions.  


These slaves hardly receive any medical treatment. Arabs are reluctant to spend money on the slaves. The lives of these slaves have got no value for them. There is enough supply of children from poor countries. It is cheaper for these oil rich sheikhs to buy a slave than to spend on medical treatment. Those who are dead are silently buried in deserts and are never spoken about (Wikipedia, 2006). Their graves are unmarked and hence remain unknown to the outside world. On the other hand, there are special animal hospitals for these racing camels where no expense is spared. The camels undergo regular medical check-up. 


Continuous physical and mental torture ultimately leaves the child in such a pathetic condition where he is unable to live outside the camp. Their all contact outside the camel farm is deliberately broken. As the children are isolated from their families and find themselves in an unfamiliar culture, they are totally at the mercy of their masters for survival. Some of these victims even forget the country of their birth and stop speaking their mother tongue (Asia Child Rights, 2004, Video Link, 6). 


They live in camps encircled with pointed wire near the racetracks so that it is not easy for them to escape (Wikipedia, 2006). In fact after so much physical and mental torture, hardly any strength or courage is left for them to give it a try to run away. But still some of these slaves try to escape from this living hell with a hope to rewrite their destiny. If unsuccessful and caught, they are often killed mercilessly to set a cautionary example to others. In one incident, the owner of a slave deliberately ran over the disobedient slave in his truck to teach him a lesson (Wikipedia, 2006). 


So, this is the pathetic story of those innocent victims, which instigated the use of the term – “Camel Jockeys”. Camel racing is a popular sport in many other countries like India and Australia. But the use of children is ever unheard of outside Middle East. Still nobody knows how many dead bodies are buried silently and secretly in the deserts every year. There is no accurate estimation or statistics, leave aside official documentation of death and injury. The bitter lamentation of a child does not leave any mark to the minds of their masters (Video Links, 6). It ends when the little child dies and goes to his grave well before his time. Graves are never marked. After all it is the religious duty of a true Muslim to hide the ugly face of Islam at any costs.       


Presently some positive steps had been taken by the governments of the civilized nations and NGOs to stop this age-old Islamic tradition of slavery. But the success is very limited. Ansar Burney Trust is one amongst the NGOs, who had successfully established a shelter home at Abu Dhabi for the rescued children from UAE. The rescued children are first taught how to live outside a camel farm. By 2005, about 800 children have been sent back to their home countries (Wikipedia, 2006). The trust was founded by Ansar Burney, a lawyer and human rights activist. Initially, the Trust received nothing but opposition from locals, government officials (in the Middle East) and most surprisingly even from the Pakistani government. Probably the reason is that, most of the children are trafficked from Pakistan (Hammond, 2005). 


The use of children in the camel races has been illegal in the UAE since 1993 (Selby, 2004). But Burney estimated that, by the end of 2005, there were as many as 20,000 children still working as camel jockeys in the Middle East - up to 5,000 of them working in the UAE alone (Hammond, 2005). A different source puts the number as high as 40,000. Real number is unknown, because there are many night races with selected viewers which are conducted in secrecy (Voice of America, 2005, Asia Child Rights, 2004). 


Till this date, this slave tradition is continued in full force (Video Links, 3, 4). Just a couple of months ago, Ansar managed to get a television camera into the camel racing tracks. In the track, there were many extremely small boys suited up looking ready to ride. The camera was hurriedly confronted by security and the children were taken away. Camel racing is supported by the highest levels of UAE society. As example, President Zayed owns a personal stable consisting of about 14,000 camels and 9,000 workers for their upkeep as a stable-boy (Anon, 2006). The family of crown prince of UAE Sheikh Mohammed (as per local newspapers, he is whimsical and ridiculously rich), possesses 2,000 camels, which gives very high performance on the racetracks (Anon, 2006). Sheikh regularly visits those race tracks and aware of everything, but pretends innocent in front of the journalists and once denied an interview to the Lexington Herald Leader on this serious issue. 


Though this practice is prohibited by law, but the law remains in the book only and cannot touch the oil-rich Arabs and the ruling party. It is unbelievable but true that in Middle East, the court of law is a personal playground for the elite classes for having fun.  


Presently in some races robot jockeys are used in Qatar and UAE. These robots are remote-controlled by camel trainers who follow the camels in cars. The robots can use whips and can shout to the camels also (Wikipedia, 2006). But again, the Arabs do not want to spend on the robots. The cost of robot jockey is about 5,500 US $, whereas, a child jockey can be purchased with an amount as low as 300 US$ (Wikipedia, 2006). Hence why to spend more? What is the value of life in Islam?  


As a conclusion, it can be said confidently that the exploitation of children in camel races is not going to stop in the near future. There are three strong reasons behind it. Firstly, it is a royal sport conducted by the ruling people of Middle East, whom no law can touch. Secondly, there is an ample supply of children from the poorer Islamic countries like, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sudan. In fact many children who had been rescued and been sent home by Ansar Burney Trust were again found re-sold to this slavery by their own parents and relatives (ABWT, 2005). Ansar in one of his interview reported that one Pakistani father sold his own son to purchase alcohol. In another case, one mother sold her first three sons in hope of work and money (ABWT, 2005). The Constitution of Pakistan, Article 11 (3) says - No child below the age of 14 years shall be engaged in any factory or mine or any other hazardous employment. The third reason is the most dangerous one – slavery is religiously allowed in Islam and Islam does not recognize the basic rights of children. Here, it’s worth mentioning the superb Islamic remark of Ayatollah Khomeini. Khomeini said "A man can have sexual pleasure from a child as young as a baby” ( Paz-2006).  


Unless Muslims come out of illiteracy, poverty and darkness of Islamic superstition; slavery cannot be stopped. The irony of the situation is that the Islamic god Allah approves slavery; and still he is called all merciful. Then how slavery can be stopped as long as Muslims follow the guidelines set by Allah and his messenger Prophet Muhammad? No wonder, Ali Sina often asks a question – How much stupidity is enough? Strong pressure from the human rights association can reduce slavery but nothing better than that can be achieved. Slavery will take one form or another; but it is going to stay, because Islam can never reform. The naked truth is that slavery will not stop unless Muslims come out of Islam (I am sure, that day is not far away) and dump the whole doctrine of Islam in a garbage can. I don’t mind, if Muslims label me as a hopeless pessimist, curse me in the name of their God and threaten me of Allah’s hellfire, but from the very deep bottom of their hearts they know that I am not a liar.  


Till that time nobody knows how many more innocent children will lose their golden childhood days, sleep forever in their grave before they know the world or live rest of their lives in a physically and mentally handicapped condition -- all for the pleasure of some oil-rich Arab Sheikhs of Middle East who are following the true tradition of Islam.  


Reference List 


(a) Video Links 


Child Camel Jockeys - Modern Day Slavery
       URL:  http://www.ansarburney.org/videolinks/video-hbo2.html 


Official Camel Race - using underage children.
       URL:  http://www.ansarburney.org/videolinks/camel_racing-uae.html 


Illicit Night Time Camel Races
       URL: http://www.ansarburney.org/videolinks/camelracing_night.html 


Child Camel Jockeys in UAE - after 2005 Ban
      URL : http://www.ansarburney.org/videolinks/childcameljockeys_afterban.html 


Child Camel Jockeys - electrocuted with Karba
      URL: http://www.ansarburney.org/videolinks/childslavery_karba.html 


Child Camel Jockeys
      URL: http://www.ansarburney.org/videolinks/injured- child_camel_jockeys.html 


(b) Literature 


Silas 3rd Jan, 1998. Slavery In Islam, Answering Islam
            URL: http://answering-islam.org.uk/Silas/slavery.htm 


Donoghue Andrew, 11th January, 2006, Government: technology can revolutionise education (updated, 10th August 2006)
            URL: http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/applications/0,39020384,39246771,00.htm 


Berry Roger, 6th August, 2003, Camel Racing
            URL: http://camelphotos.com/racing_camels.html 
 


Prof. Samuel Hejaz, 5th September, 2002 Camel Racing Information and Resource Guide to Camel Racing
      URL: http://www.zipzak.com/ 


Anonymous, 2006, Breeds of Racing Camels in the Arabian Peninsula and East Africa; Information and Resource Guide to Camel Racing
      URL: http://www.zipzak.com/#g 


Zach Selby, 3rd December, 2004 Camel Races and Slavery, The Lafayette Times (Ansar Burney Welfare Trust)
      URL: http://www.ansarburney.org/news/cj/cj21.html 


Voice of America, News (Islamabad): 26th May 2005; Thousands of Boys Trapped as Camel Jockeys in Middle East
URL: http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2005-05/Thousands-of-Boys-  Trapped-as-Camel-Jockeys-in-the-Middle-East.cfm 


Wikipedia, The free encyclopedia, 26th July, 2006. Camel racing,
      URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camel_racing 


Ansar Burney Welfare Trust, 2004 (an international human and civil rights organisation)
      URL: http://www.ansarburney.com/news27.htm 


Ansar Burney Welfare Trust , 2005, Introduction, How we began our Mission, Child Camel Jockeys.
            URL:  http://www.cameljockeys.org/background.html 


Dpa, 17th November, 2000, Tied to camels: Kids in UAE continue to suffer, 
            Dawn News, Ansar Burney Welfare Trust.

            URL: http://www.ansarburney.org/news/cj/cj17.html



Andrew Hammond,5th October, 2005: Camel jockeys trying to recover lost childhood,
            Reuters News, Ansar Burney Welfare Trust.

            URL: http://www.ansarburney.org/news/cj/cj37.html 


Asia Child Rights, 24th November, 2004 - A Comprehensive Portal on Child Rights in Asia from AHRC, Child Jockeys: 40,000 children on slave labour as ‘child camel jockeys’ in Middle East and Arab countries,
URL: http://acr.hrschool.org/mainfile.php/0205/390/ 


Paz ,18 February, 2006, Khomeini's Teachings on sex with infants and animals
URL: http://knowislam.info/drupal/khomeini 
 
 

Madrasa - An Islamic school to learn 'Ignorance' by 'Sujit Das'

Out of all the heinous crimes modern societies have ever witnessed, the worst one obviously is crime against children. The barbaric violent acts of brutality against children often leave scars in their soft minds, which probably never heal in the future. 


Islam is such a wonderful religion that legalizes many crimes. In fact this is the main reason; many hopeless criminals (who otherwise are considered a burden on any civilized society) today are being attracted towards this wonderful religion. Crime against children is one of such many legalized crimes. There are many incidents where the keepers of Islam have shown their merciless and cruel treatment towards children – suicide bombers of Palestine, camel jockeys in Middle East and Islamic schools all over the world.  


Madrasas are the Islamic schools for study of pure Islamic ethics. The culprits are the religious teachers and the victims include helpless innocent underage students. The sacred teacher-student relationship is given a new definition in these Islamic schools. 


Following is the bitter experience of a 12 years old madrasa student from Kenya who was rescued during January 2003.  


"It was a terrible place, they chain both legs and both arms, sometimes hands and feet together, They beat us at lunch time, dinner time and grab both legs and hands and give us lashes on the buttocks. We sleep in chains, eat in chains, and go to the toilets in chains. Sometimes we are hooked on the roof in chains and left hanging. We have to memorize the Koran and get punished if we cannot recite the Koran in the classroom".

 

This is the ‘legal punishment’ for a student who cannot memorize Koran in Arabic language. It is legal because the great founder of Islam had legalized it. Let’s see, what illiterate, child rapist prophet of Islam advised on child-upbringing and education.

Narrated Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-'As:

The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) said: Command your children to pray when they become seven years old, and beat them for it (prayer) when they become ten years old; and arrange their beds (to sleep) separately. (Sunan Abu Dawud Book 2, Number 0495) 


This is what Prophet Muhammad had prescribed for children. He was very concerned about their religious upbringing. Ayatollah Khomeini was even one step ahead of Prophet Muhammad. Khomeini said "A man can have sexual pleasure from a child as young as a baby” (Paz, 2006). Like prophet, like follower. Anyway that is a different story.   


Chaining incidents are rare in Bangladeshi madrasas. One incident, which I can recall, had happened in Chittagong, a busy seaport-city of Bangladesh. More than 20 students were chained and subjected to inhuman torture. All of them were under the age of 14 years; some were as young as 11. One such child was forced to carry a section of a steel railroad tie for at least one-month continuation.  

Child torture incidents in madrasas are reported mostly in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Sudan. The first two countries are safe heaven for Islamic radicals, on top of their low economy. Bangladesh is in a much better position than those countries.  


In many madrasas of Pakistan, the only subject taught is Koran, and that also in Arabic, which is a foreign language and unknown to the students. Today in Pakistan, there are about thirty-nine thousands registered madrasas, whereas during 1978, this number was three thousands only (O'Rourke, 2005). The number of students are estimated somewhere between eight hundred thousands to one million (Dalrymple, 2005). They are often run by religious organizations and lure young children mainly from poor families by providing free food and lodging. Some of the schools even provide intensive political and armed training. Recent estimates suggest that between 10 and 15 percent of Pakistan’s 45,000 madrasas (includes both registered and unregistered) promote violence (Davis, 2002). In Taliban schools of Afghanistan, often the first word children learn to spell is “jihad”, which means “God’s path to paradise” (Al Qaeda Training Manual, 2001).

During 1994, human rights commission of Pakistan investigated the child abuse incidents and results of the investigation shows that in many madrasas the children are often locked in iron chains to a heavy wooden block in group of four or five. Several children were found to have been continuously chained for up to one year. This prevents them from escaping from the school to avoid the burden of memorizing the Koran in Arabic.

During March 1996, police raided a madrasa near Multan and rescued 64 such victims (Anon, 2004). They were held in strong ropes and chains. The religious head teacher of the madrasa said that the students had fallen into bad habits of watching satellite television. In orthodox Islamic society watching television is a big religious taboo. The head teacher also said that, sometimes even the parents of the children instructed the teachers to chain their children. These incidents not only leave scars in their hands and feet but also in their soft minds.

In another incident in Pakistan, during September 1997, a 14 year old student, Muhammad Azam Dogar, somehow managed to escape from the madrasa-prison with iron fetters still in his legs. It was not easy for him to remove the heavy iron fetters. In a desperate effort to remove them, he decided to put them on a rail track. Though he was successful to escape from the Islamic religious jail, he lost his life and was crushed to death by the on-coming train (Children in the Community and family, 2005)

Pakistani government is aware of this kind of heinous crimes against children. But there is hardly any effort on their part to stop this barbarism in the name of education. There are laws, which prohibit violence against children in the society. But when such crimes are committed in the name of religion the law remains within the book only. The political parties do not want to spoil their relationship with religious organizations that run such schools. Sometimes the influential religious parties even threaten retaliation if there is official probing and if they are closely controlled. The political force of this madrasa system cannot be underestimated. Hence there are many cases of beating, chaining and other types of torture, which remain unknown to the outside civilized world. Even when the abuses become widely known, the authorities still appear unwilling to take significant action to protect the innocent children. The situation is that worse.

The children in Sudan are in even worse situation. There, the students are forced to drink the water, which is left from washing the dirty chalkboards (Anon, 2005). Students are convinced that, the holy wash-water will help them to memorize Koran! A great way of memorizing Koran, indeed! Can anybody imagine, all these things are happening in this 21st century?  


The deep-rooted superstitious minds of Islamic teachers will take another thousand years to change. The only requirement of a student for the purpose of passing out from the school successfully is to be able to memorize the entire Koran. Many students take as long as nine years, whereas many students cannot complete the course and never pass out even after chaining and drinking wash-water.

Child abuse cases in pure Islamic schools are nothing new. It is traditional, but hardly few of these incidents come into limelight. Madrasa is a place for brainwashing young minds just to destroy all the future possibilities of the child to do something creative and to make him a Koranic zombie. All the humanities are nipped in the bud. Countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan and some Muslim majority parts of India, these schools are just mushrooming. They target children of poor Muslim families. Sometimes the families of the children are paid handsomely for sending their children to these schools.

Then, there are cases of sexual abuses against children in madrasa. One horrible incident was reported on 11th December, 04 in The Daily Times of Lahore. A 14-year-old madrasa student, Abid Tanoli, reported to have had acid thrown on him by his madrasa teacher. This poor fellow had lost both his eyes with more than 50 % burn on his face. Left side of his face was horribly disfigured. This incident took place on 1st July 2002 in Karachi (Petit, 2004). His fault ? He rejected sexual demand from his madrasa teacher. The Daily Times also reported that, during the year 2004, there are total 500 complaints of child sex abuse in Pakistani madrasas, but there was no successful prosecution (Khawaja, 2004). Presently, the teacher (who cannot be named for legal reasons), and two of his accomplice are in prison awaiting trial for attempted murder and rape. All three deny the charges. The fourth culprit is still absconding.

Haroon Tanoli, Abid's father, was threatened with harsh consequences when he tried to take up his son's case with officials at the school. The school authority initially tried to hush up the matter by offering him a cash payment of one million Pakistani rupees (£11,500), but Haroon refused to back down and took up the matter with police (Ansari, 2004).

Haroon said, “I despise hypocrites who sport huge beards in the name of religion and hinder the passage of justice in the name of Islam … I had a beard, and all my four sons were studying in a madrasa. However, following this incident, the first thing I did was to pull my children out of the madrasa - and shave off my beard" (Ansari, 2004).

Even when Abid was receiving medical treatment, the religious authorities pressed the hospital authority to discharge him. Haroon managed to get him admitted to a different hospital for safety reasons. The family is too poor and cannot afford an operation to save his sight. The poor boy lost his sight forever.

As per BBC report on 10th December 04, Aamer Liaquat Hussian, a Minister in the nation’s religious affair department is facing death threats and denunciations from Islamic clerics for his insistence that Pakistani government must confront the sex abuse at its madrasas (Anderson, 2004). Hussain sticks by his point and reportedly to have said that he himself experienced attempted abuse at a religious school when he was eight (Khawaja, 2004).

Zia Ahmed Awan, the president of Madadgaar, a joint project of LHRLA (Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Aid) and UNICEF, the United Nations children's fund, said, "They (the sex scandal) are either hushed up and sorted out within the confines of school, or parents are pressurised not to report the incident to the media as it would give religion a bad name," (Khawaja, 2004).

The ulema, Imams and Maulanas and other religious teachers of Islam may not have advanced the cause of human knowledge by a single inch since the birth of Islam, but they should get some credit; they have done enough research, developed many ideas and have ‘doctorates’ in the fields of torture and human exploitation in the name of religion.

Now these types of nasty incidents are being reported in United Kingdom also. In UK, there are about 700 such Islamic schools. As many as 40% of teachers in these UK schools hit or scold children, and between 15 and 20 cases of sexual abuse occur each year (Siddiqui, 2006, Anon, 2006). Because of the fear of child abuse, many UK parents prefer home tuition instead of sending their children to madrasas.

One enlightened ex-Muslim lady had written in FFI,

“My experience of madrasa was like any other glorifying Muhammad, chanting things we didn't understand all day long and showing absolute disrespect to Christians and the other animists it was the thing to do”.( Rasheeda, 2004 )

Often the madrasa pass out students are found to be less tolerant towards other religions, less logical power, less aware of modern scientific developments, opposed to the social rights of women and violent repression, hateful towards non-Muslims, absolute theocracy, superstitious, prefer aggressive way for resolving disputes between Muslims and non-Muslims and supporting jihad in conjunction with terrorist groups. Moreover, their proper thinking power is skilfully paralysed during the course of their studies.

And what is the market value of these students, and where do they stand in today’s tough professional competition? 

After so much torture, chaining, beating and wash-water drinking the result is utter disgusting. With a total lack of modern education and knowledge of latest technology, these madrasa students are not at all useful to any modern day employer. They remain fit for manual labourers’ class jobs, where no education is necessary. Sometimes they are employed in the religious sector as prayer leaders and so-called Islamic scholars or madrasa teachers. In fact I am not exaggerating if I say that they are even unfit for conducting sophisticated terrorist operations – they are so useless. The only jobs they are fit for in a terrorist organization is a suicide mission, killing and torturing non-Muslims and blindly follow the instructions of their leaders.  


The irony of the situation is that many students outside Arab even do not know what is written in Koran. They just recite the Koran in Arabic, but they do not understand the contents. They don’t know even what they have studied. Is not it bizarre? 


So, all the effort to pass out from schools remains useless for all practical purposes in today’s world. They cannot blend into an advanced western nation. They are total failure in sophisticated operations, where even basic minimum technical expertise is required. Some of them even lack basic mathematical skills (Fair & Haqqani, 2005). They are blissfully ignorant of the various developments and wallowed in a state of nostalgia about the glorious feudal past of militant Islam. History, if it taught at all, would be Islamic history and not modern history or world history. Some students may acquire good proficiency in Urdu and Arabic languages at the best, but without other knowledge they find themselves quite ill-equipped to transact business in present day society (Shourie, 2004).  


What stuns the educated people is that they do not blame themselves or their educational-background for their misery; they just put the blame on western world. “Afghans suffer poverty because of America’s disproportionate wealth” – this is what madrasa teachers say in Afghanistan.

This is the bottom line of madrasa education. The basic essentials of a successful education system are never fulfilled. Education involves transference of knowledge and values accumulated by mankind from one person to another. Humanity is inseparable from education. The best process of education encourages the students to ask questions, which propel them on the path of further learning. Without this, education becomes a burden. Scientific enquiry also enriches mankind with knowledge. Education improves the reasoning power of a person. Neither memorization of a book nor physical punishment helps the students. Students can learn not only through reading, but also by experience, by watching others and also by observing the world in general. Unfortunately, madrasa education lacks all of the above. Education is an important area to advance the civilization further. If it is left in the hands of Allah, this is bound to happen. 


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