Corporal punishment was invented by Satan

Sir Frank Peters: A highway billboard in Amarillo, Texas, that screams ‘beat your children’ to thousands of passing onlookers daily is creating a raucous across America and in other parts of the world and causing people to stop in their tracks and pay attention.

And what may come as a surprise to many readers, especially Justice Imman Ali and Justice Sheikh Hassan Arif who banned corporal punishment in Bangladesh schools in 2011, is the fact that I (an anti corporal punishment campaigner) agree entirely with the sentiments of the controversial message.

The billboard speaks wisdom… it speaks logic… it speaks truth… and advises if you want your child to suffer hurt, depression, anxiety, and experience drug and alcohol abuse that may lead to their suicide; or if you want them to graduate in honours with antisocial skills, such as aggression, wife beating and other forms of violence, then all you need to do is beat them regularly or allow school teachers to do it for you. Yipee! ­– It’s that simple and there’s no additional expense or special training involved.

A regular good whacking by hand, with a stick, a leather belt, electrical cord (all true and trusted) or any implement that will cause great pain, and may even leave indelible marks on the skin as well as the mind, is an ideal way to begin the process and the transformation can start at any age. A slap across the face, a few good thumps with a clenched fist and a few kicks up the child’s rear also adds zest to the age-old recipe.

Shoving, pushing, shaking and pulling their hair also brings you closer to damaging the child for life, but it’s not as beneficial as getting them to cut themselves with used rusted razor blades (as one ‘teacher’ did in Bangladesh), or chaining them to a plank of wood and locking them in a dark room for days without any poo or pee facilities (as one madrasah did), guarantees even better results. They’d absolutely hate you (and God) for that.

And the winner is…

The ultimate prize winner – and a real classic – is the torture invented at the Talimul Quran Mahila Madrasa in Kadamtali, Bangladesh, where 14 young girls were literally branded for life with a red-hot cooking spatula by their 'teacher' to demonstrate her concept of what hell would be like! WOW! – Sheer genius!

That’s the kind of spirit you need to display if you want to damage a child for life and instill in them hate, aggression and vengeance. Many ‘teachers’ are already qualified experts, no special training certification required. The National Institute of Health in America and psychologists and psychiatrists scattered worldwide will vouch for them and their ways. There’s been a colossal amount of research over the decades that inadvertently offer similar good advice and ‘tricks of the trade’.

Some parents and ‘teachers’ have gained many valuable tips from these sordid reports and put them to good use in breaking children mentally, physically and emotionally and painstakingly helping build a society of antisocial, law-breaking, broken adults, but who cares.

The children who cry their eyes out and scream for mercy are no fun. They need additional whacking to press home the points; who is boss, they’re worthless, unloved, and their only value to society is when they reach voting age, as is the hallmark of corporal punishment.

These unloved cry babies put on an act of hurt and despair, give-in too easily and ought to see corporal punishment as a gift from the government-salaried demented people and learn how to take torture in the spirit it was given to them by their all-knowing compassionate benefactors.

The world would be so boring if it were full of good, upstanding, law-abiding citizens. Thousands of police would be out of jobs. Psychiatrists, welfare workers and their aligned professions would barely scrape out a living and their families would suffer as a consequence! Be reasonable… be fair… do your child a favour and whack your child today!

Fortunately (HUGE sigh), thank God; there is still some compassion and commonsense left in the world. In short supply, admittedly, but there’s hope for improvement. Corporal punishment is a violation of the most basic and crucial laws of a civilized society.

Moulana Muhammad Khan Sherani, Chairman of the Council of Islamic Ideology, told the world media recently that Islam STRICTLY prohibits physical punishment of both males and females.

Let’s face facts…

Nowhere in the bible is there any mention… ANY MENTION… of Mary and Joseph beating Jesus, or the child-loving Prophet Jesus beating his child students. Let’s face facts, if Jesus thought it would help the children he was teaching, he would have whacked them continuously without apology!

So corporal punishment, it would seem, is an invention of Satan, meted out by his representatives on earth, or how would it exist in a modern, Allah loving, enlightened society?

Brutalizing children is not the way to achieving greatness and is not acceptable in a civilized society.

If Muhammad, Jesus, and representatives of God on earth say corporal punishment is wrong, what more is there to be said?

The ignorant among us will shout and scream tantrum-like, ‘spare the rod and spoil the child’. God love them, they are more to be pitied than laughed at. Generally it’s interpreted to mean, if children are not physically punished when they do wrong, their personal development will suffer. Right?

Wrong!

Many people are fond of quoting (shielding their ignorance and hiding behind) Holy Scriptures to justify the inhumane brutality of corporal punishment, particularly the verse in Proverbs 13:24 that says, ‘He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him’.

The problem is in the flawed translation of the word ‘rod’, which does not mean stick or bamboo. In Hebrew the word “rod” is the same word used in Psalms 23:4, ‘thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me’ and means discipline. Which makes a world of good sense. Agreed?

So, the fact remains solid and true, nothing justifies corporal punishment… ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

Nowadays, they’re even screaming this vital message from billboards for all to see and learn.

For more information, visit ‘www.beatyourchildren.com’.

(Sir Frank Peters is a former newspaper and magazine publisher and editor, a humanitarian, an award-winning thought-provoking writer, and a royal Goodwill Ambassador who has campaigned for eight years to abolish corporal punishment in Bangladesh.)


risingbd/Dhaka/Feb 16, 2018/Frank Peters/Nasim