Brit Muslim found guilty of child cruelty

BY OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

London

Aug. 28: A Muslim man, Syed Mustafa Zaidi, has been found guilty of two charges of cruelty to two children, under the age of 16, for forcing them to flog themselves during Muharram earlier in 2008.

The 44-year-old will be sentenced in September and his convictions related to a boy of 15 years and a boy of 13 years, both of whom are of Pakistani origin.

Zaidi had used a Zangeer Zani - a wooden handle attached to a number of chains with curved blades at the ends - to flagellate himself then made the two boys use it as well.

Members of the local Shia community centre were so concerned at what was happening that they intervened in the matter.

"The case of the first person to be convicted of child cruelty during a ritual ceremony involving flagellation makes clear the law is there to protect children," Greater Manchester Crown Prosecution Service lawyer Carol Jackson said after the Manchester Crown Court passed the guilty verdict.

"The Crown Prosecution Service wishes to make it clear that this prosecution was not an attack upon the practices or ceremonies of Shias,"she said.

"Indeed, the prosecution relied as part of its evidence upon the president of the local Shia Community Centre," she added.

Stressing the fact that that law was there to safeguard children, Ms Jackson said: "The law exists to protect the young from harm or being exposed to harm."

The Crown Prosecution Service lawyer added: "In this case, both boys were made to take part in the ritual flagellation and suffered injuries to their backs." "We are satisfied that, given the age of the children involved, the coercion employed by Syed Mustafa Zaidi, who did not accept that he was wrong, and the possibility of such an incident occurring again, the decision to prosecute ... was the correct one," the Crown Prosecution Service lawyer said.