Fran Abrams
BBC News
18 October 2011
Britain’s madrassas have faced more than 400 allegations of physical abuse in the past three years, a BBC investigation has discovered.
But only a tiny number have led to successful prosecutions.
The revelation has led to calls for formal regulation of the schools, attended by more than 250,000 Muslim children every day for Koran lessons.
The chairman of the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board said he would treat the issue as a matter of urgency.
Leading Muslim figures said families often faced pressure not to go to court or even to make a formal complaint.
A senior prosecutor told the BBC its figures were likely to represent the tip of an iceberg.
Community pressure
BBC Radio 4’s File on 4 asked more than 200 local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales how many allegations of physical and sexual abuse had come to light in the past three years.
One hundred and ninety-one of them agreed to provide information, disclosing a total of 421 cases of physical abuse. But only 10 of those cases went to court, and the BBC was only able to identify two that led to convictions…
The article continues at BBC News.
Read also, Hundreds of children ‘abused in UK madrassas’… but only TWO have been convicted
Revelations follow undercover investigation into beatings and hate lessons at madrassas in Britain, at The Daily Mail.
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