Of “Beggers” And Damsels In “Distress”
Isn’t it sad that during the holy month of Ramadan there are those who seek to exploit the generosity of Muslims by engaging in the phony act of begging to enrich themselves? And now this act of begging has taken on a new cover - that of a damsel in “distress” in a foreign land.
Religious Teachers Arrested For Forcing Children To Beg
The other day, 7 religious teachers were arrested in the Senegalese capital of Dakar. These 7 are teachers of the Quran in this predominantly Muslim country of Senagal. And their crime? Forcing children to engage in public begging, or to use a technical term, to panhandle. Now to panhandle is to depend on the spontaneous charity of strangers for survival. And that’s exactly what these 7 Muslim religious teachers did to the children entrusted by Muslim parents to their charge.
Police spokesman Mbaye Sady Diop said: “We have arrested seven Qur’anic teachers who have sent children to the streets to beg. They were handed over to the prosecutor to do his job.” Muslim parents did not expect that their children would be forced to be panhandlers by the daaras (traditional Muslim schools). They expected that their children would work on communal farms and be given food, shelter and religious teachings from the Quran.
Human Rights Watch
Earlier this year, Human Rights Watch said that at least 50,000 children were abused by unscrupulous teachers who shorten school hours in order to send them to the streets to do their begging. It is said that these children lived like slaves, being subject to severe beatings if the money collected through begging is deemed insufficient by their teachers.
How much can such a teacher make? Apparently quite a lot. Some marabouts (religious teachers) collect as much as $100,000 a year through the begging activities of their children.
Ban On Public Begging
Senegal has agreed to enforce an existing ban on public begging after intense pressure from other countries. But some observers feel that this enforcement will soon be relaxed in the face of little employment opportunities and non-existent welfare system in Senegal, leaving begging as the only option for survival for the poor.
Damsels In “Distress” Ruse
Over in the Saudi city of Hail, a new kind of begging is taking place, and this time it is not done by children, but by women. But why Hail? Well it seems that Hail is well known in Saudi Arabia and internationally for the generosity of its people. The city derived its wealth simply by being sited on the camel caravan route of the Hajj.
It seems that foreign Arab women in Hail are knocking on doors of unsuspecting residents with a tale about being stranded without transport, and asking for a donation of Saudi Arabia Riyals 100 ($26).
At shopping malls, these foreign Arab women would approach shoppers holding foreign ATM cards, claiming that they could not access their bank accounts back home, and are thus stranded. Kind hearted shoppers would then give these foreign Arab women beggers money.
Think About It
Why do people who claim to be Muslims abuse the spirit of giving by fellow Muslims during the holy month of Ramadan by begging to enrich themselves? Does Ramadan mean nothing to the foreign Arab women who prey on the generosity of the residents of Hail by phony tales that are nothing but begging? Does Ramadan mean nothing to the religious teachers in Senegal who would rather force their young students to do street begging to enrich themselves instead of spending time to teach them the Quran? What is Ramadan to these people? A time to pull a get-rich-quick scam?
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