At a mosque near Paris, a guest preacher told believers to hit their children aged 11 and over who skip prayers. He was being lenient: a hadith graded authentic says to make children pray at seven and beat them for it at ten (Abu Dawud 495). From that age, another hadith has them end every prayer by seeking refuge from the torment of hell and of the grave (Muslim 588), torments the Quran describes in detail: burnt skins replaced with new ones, boiling water poured over heads (4:56, 22:19). In Iran, a father who beheaded his teenage daughter in 2020 got nine years in prison, while girls are criminally responsible from nine lunar years. Where these texts become law, childhood is short. Where they are taught to the letter, fear starts early.
A prayer hall in Aulnay-sous-Bois, north of Paris, was ordered shut for six months, and the association running it has since been dissolved. Its preachers justified the killing of a Quran burner, attacked Jews and nonbelievers, and ranked Shiites below pigs and dogs. The mosque's lawyer suggests France now punishes quoting the Quran. The court disagreed.
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