The Condemned
"Islamic Schools Lure African Boys Into Begging," by the AP's Rukmini Callimachi, is a powerful, disturbing story. While Callimachi builds dramatic tension by describing 9-year-old Coli's attempts to escape from a Quranic instructor, she takes us into a world where parents routinely send their children hundreds of miles from home to become virtual slaves. Here's an excerpt:
It was getting dark. Coli had less than half the 72 cents he was told to bring back. He was afraid. He knew what happened to children who failed to meet their daily quotas.
They were stripped and doused in cold water. The older boys picked them up like hammocks by their ankles and wrists. Then the teacher whipped them with an electrical cord until the cord ate their skin.
Coli's head hurt with hunger. He could already feel the slice of the wire on his back.
He slipped away, losing himself in a tide of honking cars. He had 20 cents in his tomato can.
In a four-sentence epilogue, Callimachi brings the story to a chilling conclusion.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080420/ap_on_re_af/begging_for_islam_4