Muslims the world over - wake up to the ills of the pervert clerics!

Submitted by Nasim K (United Kingdom), Jul 12, 2006 at 03:18

In response to the article about sexual abuse in madrassas, I was saddened and delighted. I was saddened that, as a survivor of child sex abuse in a Muslim community, that this is still ongoing. At the same time, I was delighted that awareness has been raised where it needs to be, but more must be done.

As a child growing up in a Muslim family in England, we were sent to the madrassas after school. It is there, where I first encountered what these clerics were capable of. Me and my brother, along with other boys, received random physical abuse at the hands of the cleric. It was only after my brother complained to my mother, when the van no longer came to collect us. I was 7 and my brother was 9.

However, for me, the abuse continued. A cleric used to visit from Pakistan, who was a friend of the family. I was roughly 8 when he first visited and he was on a tour of mosques. He sexually abused me in my parents house and the abuse continued every time he visited from Pakistan in the coming years. The abuse did not stop with him. There was a man who lived in England who also sexually abused me in a mosque.

When I confronted my mother about it, as an adult, she was genuinely sorry that this had happened to me. However, the scars are still there and through ongoing therapy I am trying to come to terms with it. What I cannot understand is why Muslims the world over are in denial about what happens in mosques and madrassas. Why do they think that they cannot be subject to the same level of scrutiny that other religions are?

I believe that the sexual abuse will continue until Muslims accept the need for greater transparency.

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