Happy to be Flogged

Yeah, nothing like brainwashing your child into enjoying a good flogging:

Boy ‘happy’ to flog himself

22/ 8/2008 – The Asian News

A BOY who flogged himself with a bladed whip at a Muslim ceremony had a `free choice’ and wasn’t a `victim’ at all, a court heard.

The youngster was giving evidence in the trial of Syed Mustafa Zaidi, 44, who is accused of breaking child cruelty laws by telling two boys to whip themselves with a zanjeer, a device with five blades and five chains.

Defence counsel Richard Marks QC said the boy had a `free choice as to whether or not’ to use the device.

The boy said of Mr Zaidi: “He didn’t force me. He said `if you want to do it you can take my zanjeer’.”

To which the barrister replied: “There was no way you were a victim of what was going on in the mosque where you?” The boy said: “No.”

It also emerged the boy was `angry’ after originally being told he couldn’t take part in the ceremony because he was too young.

Shorly before it started he had asked for a smaller zanjeer, but was told none were available. Mr Zaidi, who was next to him, said: “Take mine. I will go and wash it.”

Earlier he had told the court how he took part in the ceremony to prove he was a good Shia Muslim.

He told the court he had said `no’ when first offered the zanjeer by the defendant, before changing his mind. And he admitted using a zanjeer in Pakistan every year from the age of seven until he moved to Britain.

Mr Marks said: “The truth is as long as you could get hold of a zanjeer you were happy and wanted to do it.”

“Yes,” the boy replied.

But the boy claimed it was wrong for him to have been given an adult zanjeer to use by the defendant and that it was wrong because he was under 16.

He said: “I did want to use it at the end because I heard somebody say `this is the last session and after this the Matam is going to finish’.”

The boy added: “But under-16 wasn’t allowed. That is how he did wrong. I wanted to do it but he shouldn’t have given me the zanjeer. That’s the main thing.”

He said although another boy was using the zanjeer in front of him, it was a `small one’ and he wasn’t `bleeding properly’.

The boy later described how Mr Zaidi and another man went to stop another young boy from using the adult zanjeer.

Following his evidence, the boy’s mother told the court how it was `harmful’ for a boy to use an adult zanjeer.

She told of her `shock’ at discovering what had happened after seeing blood on her son’s clothes.

She said: “For a young-aged boy to do it with an adult zanjeer, it is very harmful.”

The ceremony is practised to mark the 10th day of Muhurram, when the martyrdom of Mohammed’s grandson is remembered.

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