In a harrowing tale more worthy of Greek tragedy than a backwater town in Wales, a British woman has reportedly beaten her own son to death, before burning the body to hide evidence of her unnatural act. Her son's crime? A failure to have memorised the Holy Quran.
According to the the International Business Times and sources following the criminal trial, the Muslim mother who beat her 7-year-old boy to death after he failed to recite excerpts from the Quran, was found guilty of murder.
While Islamic culture breeds the utmost respect for the accomplishment of learning verses of the Holy Book by heart, the exercise of memorization is usually nurtured in a healthy, if competitive environment. Those who have successfully committed the Holy Quran to heart are revered with a special title. But this freak incident at a family home in Wales that led to the untimely death of a child is a flagrant abuse of religion and parenting in the same instance.
Sara Ege, 33, was convicted of beating her child Yaseen to death with a bare stick, then burning his battered body to conceal the evidence. Police at first believed that Yaseen was a tragic victim of a house fire.
Ege initially claimed her husband, Yousef, was responsible for the 2010 death and only confessed to the heinous crime in fear for her own life. The father was let off the hook, eventually acquitted of causing his son’s death by failing to protect him.
Any thoughts on this most unholy of crimes? Have your say on this tragic incident of infanticide, in the name of religious discipline, in the space below.
