Sara Ege Given Life Sentence for Murdering Son over Koran Studies
BBC: A mother who beat her seven-year-old son when he failed to memorise passages from the Koran has been given a life sentence for his murder.

Sara Ege, 33, killed Yaseen Ege at their home in Pontcanna, Cardiff, in July 2010 and set fire to his body.

She was convicted in December after a five-week trial. The judge has set a minimum tariff of 17 years.

Her husband Yousuf Ege, a taxi driver, was cleared of allowing the death of a child by failing to protect him.

Sara Ege was also found guilty of perverting the course of justice. » | Monday, January 07, 2013

Pakistan’s Islamic Schools Fill Void, but Fuel Militancy
The madrasas offer almost no instruction beyond the memorizing of the Koran, creating a widening pool of young minds that are sympathetic to militancy. Photo courtesy of The New York Times
THE NEW YORK TIMES: MOHRI PUR, Pakistan — The elementary school in this poor village is easy to mistake for a barn. It has a dirt floor and no lights, and crows swoop through its glassless windows. Class size recently hit 140, spilling students into the courtyard.

But if the state has forgotten the children here, the mullahs have not. With public education in a shambles, Pakistan’s poorest families have turned to madrasas, or Islamic schools, that feed and house the children while pushing a more militant brand of Islam than was traditional here.

The concentration of madrasas here in southern Punjab has become an urgent concern in the face of Pakistan’s expanding insurgency. The schools offer almost no instruction beyond the memorizing of the Koran, creating a widening pool of young minds that are sympathetic to militancy.

In an analysis of the profiles of suicide bombers who have struck in Punjab, the Punjab police said more than two-thirds had attended madrasas.

“We are at the beginning of a great storm that is about to sweep the country,” said Ibn Abduh Rehman, who directs the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, an independent organization. “It’s red alert for Pakistan.” >>> By Sabrina Tavernise | Sunday, May 3, 2009