Maryam Amir – Religious abuse and child SA
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses the importance of protecting people's reputation and history as victims of child sexual assault. They emphasize the need for accountability and transparency in community conversations to stop the cycle of abuse. The speaker also addresses the issue of sexual harassment and how parents and children should be safe from it.
AI: Summary ©
For those of you who are adults that
are victims and survivors of child sexual assaults,
whether it was perpetrated through a Qur'an
teacher, a parent, I know that this is
an incredibly triggering time for you and all
of us.
One of the reasons why it is so
triggering is because this is not the first
time our community has learned of allegations against
a well-known international figure who teaches Qur
'an, which is why, whether or not you
to wait until you learn more, it's important
for us to address it because it is
not the first time, and when we continue
to stay silent, we give the message to
victims and survivors that protecting the reputation of
abusers and predators is more important than protecting
even child victims.
So this particular individual's case aside, you as
victims and survivors deserve to know you are
seen and heard, number one, by Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala, and when your relationship with
Allah has been used specifically to justify your
abuse, it becomes even more of a responsibility
on people of knowledge or the community leadership
to make a clear statement.
Your abuse has been true, and the fact
that you are so shocked, angered, hurt, and
feel so betrayed is a reflection of us
not having national guidelines, standards of accountability.
Right now, the discussions I am seeing revolve
around the impact of celebrity shaykh culture, the
need for women to only teach women and
men to only teach men, the need for
more segregation between men and women to protect
men and women from falling into sin.
Code of conduct is a very important conversation,
but when we are discussing a child victim
of such horrific, disgusting, and blatant abuse of
power, our conversation needs to focus on accountability,
reparation, and long-lasting swift action, because some
of those who have been previously found guilty
are still imams in other masajid, still headlined
at conferences.
Other scholars or speakers are still speaking alongside
them, and all of that gives a message
that we all sin, we all make mistakes,
we should give nasiha in private, we should
seek forgiveness from Allah, when in reality the
message we should be giving is that we
all should seek forgiveness from Allah, but we
have a no-tolerance policy in our community
that if a person is blatantly found guilty
of clearly egregious actions, that they will not
be accepted to teach in positions of religious
authority.
And because we have not done that yet,
despite the multiple cases our community has already
experienced, when our conversations internally shift to stop
focusing on the need for women to wear
more hijab, and start honestly reflecting the reality
of our community, where parents are sexually abusing
their children, where Quran teachers who are men
are sexually abusing boys too.
This is not men against women, or all
imams against women students, this is an abuse
of power and control, and a sick perversion
to use religion, and for sisters specifically, when
Allah says, Ibn Kathir, one of the most
prolific known Quran commentators says, It is a
threat to men if they transgress against women.
For God, the Most High, the Great, is
their protector, and He seeks vengeance against those
who wronged them.