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Senegal Urged to Rein in Religious Schools

By ADAM NOSSITER
Posted: April 15, 2010.

Print: New York Times

excerpt:

Thousands of children in Senegal are forced to beg on the streets under the pretext that they are receiving religious instruction, Human Rights Watch said in a report Thursday that urged the government to crack down on the long-established phenomenon.

Brandishing begging bowls and tin cans at passers-by and motorists, they collect coins for religious leaders who have promised their parents that they will be given instruction in the Koran. In fact, the children’s principal duty is often to support the religious leaders, the report said.

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Comments (3)

1. Anders Emil

Once your logic is based on superstition, anything can be excused. It is time that the world realizes what an infectious disease to human society religion is. Thousands of years, people and esp children have been exploited in the name of a holy ghost.

posted on April 15, 2010
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What ?
Religious ‘leaders’ milking their flock for their own personal gain ?
I am shocked!
Still, a good thing that religion was involved to provide a moral guideline. Who knows what would have happened otherwise.

posted on April 16, 2010
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3. Hamilton Jacobi

Frankly, I think it is better to have children begging in the streets than in the classroom being brainwashed with the Koran.  (Of course, getting a real secular education would be better than either of these, but that option doesn’t seem to be on offer.)

posted on April 16, 2010
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