I have always had my issues
with religion. Of course, you might think some of them are inconsequential and
some are like these three - 1. Why is a
church pew always that much harder and aggressively brutal on the bottom
compared to your average wooden office chair or the bench in the kafunda? 2. Is it possible to have a church
service where you don’t have to keep on standing up and sitting back down every
ten minutes? 3. Is there a chance that the church authorities might consider
introducing a tea or coffee break on services that go past one-and-a-half
hours?
Those are my trivial
apprehensions. My graver fears, are centred round the preaching’s of Muslim and
Christian Cleric in primary schools.
While those of the Muslim faith
are some ten days or so into the holy month of Ramadhan, I was particularly perturbed to
come across a report that made for the most distressing reading. The Office for
Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted), is a UK
government and is responsible for inspecting educational institutions,
childcare, adoption and fostering agencies and regulates a range of children’s
social care services.
So, the peeps from Ofsted
decide to go and do what they do best – inspecting schools that is, and what
they found in Muslim primary schools is very disturbing. Among the library
books they found, one reads: ‘It's okay to beat your wife if she refuses sex’.
Another library had a book that stimulated children to read a text that
contrasted the ‘noble women of the East’ with the ‘internally torn woman of the
West’ while one unabashedly, had a paragraph that reads: ‘Hell is mostly full
of women because they are ungrateful to their husbands’.
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| Egyptian Cleric - Mansoor Abdul Hakim |
I had never heard of the
Egyptian cleric, Mansoor Abdul Hakim – probably because I am not Muslim and I
don’t follow Muslim clerics. Anyway, in his warped ‘wisdom’, Mansoor Abdul
Hakim wrote a book titled - Women Who Deserve
To Go To Hell which, I expect you to have already surmised is one of the
books found in the school library! In his book Mansoor says: “It is wrong for
wives to show ‘ingratitude to their husbands’ or have ‘tall ambitions’. One
chapter of the book reads: “In the beginning of the 20th century, a movement
for the freedom of women was launched with the basic objective of driving women
towards aberrant ways.” Another chapter reads: “…Women who deserve to go to
hell include disobedient wives, those who cut their hair, alter their attire,
adorn themselves with makeup and women who grumble...”
Other books found in school libraries
said that in Muslim marriages “…the wife is not allowed to refuse sex to her
husband…’ or ‘…leave the house where she lives without his permission…’ Other
books centred on teaching boys and girls that ‘man by way of correction, he can
also beat his wife’ while another book claimed ‘western women attract men and
hang around aimlessly in cinemas and cafés’.
In one school, in a book titled
Daily Life and Relationships, a pupil
had written that men are ‘physically stronger’ and women are ‘emotionally
weaker’. And wait for it, the worksheet was covered in approving red ticks from
the teacher. Jeez!
Back to Mansoor Abdul Hakim. I
trawled the internet looking for reviews on his book and found none. Did Book
Reviewer find it not worth reviewing? While I wholeheartedly subscribe to the realms
of free speech, there is literature that is most inappropriate and disturbing
for primary school children to be reading, let alone it being derogatory to
women with baseless comments like its wrong for them to have ‘tall ambitions!’
Perhaps you now all understand
why I have questions with religion….?
Pictures: Mansoor Abdul Hakim, Internet
