Intervention of Sheikh Mahy Cisse on the "Withdrawal of Street Children"
A child who lives on the street and a child who goes to the Madrassa who begs are not the same. First of all we must deal with the case of adults in full possession of their physical and mental faculty who are able to go to work and who find themselves begging. We educators do not encourage begging. If we had the capability we would ensure that no one begs.
Today we discuss the topic of the Madrassas but it is important to make the distinction between these schools and begging. In our time there is confusion between the foundations upon which the Quranic schools were based and the manner in which they operate today. Some teachers from the Madrassas teach their students and send them to beg due to the lack of means necessary for them live, here we are talking about the Madrassas of today. However in Medina Baye, I don’t know any Quranic schools other than those built by the descendants of the first inhabitants.
Here, all the Quranic schools are modern and if we look at the example of the school of Shaykh Wuld Rabbani where we were all been trained even the late Imam Hassan Cisse, we never begged, in fact (as children) we envied the students of other schools who were doing it. So we have modern Quranic schools that were founded here in Medina Baye thanks to Sheikh Ibrahim Niasse (ra). All the other schools of Medina were inspired by this (model) and none of them could send their students to beg in the streets. They are very modern and provide a very good education.
In our time (if we wanted extra money) we would eat our food and we would sell the rest of the food. A person who roams the streets can’t participate in the development of a nation that they are a part of either child or adult. What is the origin of this situation? The real problem is that right and not to capture the children of the street. If the government wants to eradicate the problem of begging, they must first know that these people (teachers and students) who have chosen to teach or study the Quran are real citizens. The authorities must devote a substantial part of the budget allocated to education Senegal to the Quranic schools with competent teachers. Every year these subsidised schools should be subject to control auditing in order to certify that education is of a certain quality and that the conditions of life are correct. This way they can be better framed to help them more.
Since the government don’t build any Quranic schools and don’t pay the teachers who teach there, of course, the same government can’t manage these Quranic schools. Why is the management of French schools better? Because they were built for successive governments since the colonial era at the time of President Senghor until our days. Every government in power has a goal set for the construction of a number of schools and teachers are paid by the state. No government has built a Quranic school nor pays their educator, so what right does he have to look at their management? If they had built Quranic schools and took care of the health of the leaders they would know and be able to identify them. If the children of these schools who beg were subsidized by the state the authorities will be able to ask questions and crack down if necessary.
Developed countries never leave their children begging. In The United States if a child is not attending school they are placed under the guardianship of the country and sent to school. If, however, we make note of children not enrolled in the schools and subsequently we replace in schools, me, I don’t see any inconvenience. However, if the authorities come across a child enrolled in a Quranic school and send him to a centre so he can learn a new trade, then the authorities have imposed a future upon this child even though his father has already chosen his future path.
A child whose society is of any assistance to him should get to know what conditions he lives in first before they impose a future upon him. This is the truth! They talk about Quranic schools without having frequented them, without knowing exactly what they really are, without knowing where the Quran teachers are from or where they are located. The state must know, paying great attention to detail what conditions the Quranic schools are in.
In Senegal, you can’t stop the people from learning the Quran. During the colonial era, Sheikh Al Hajj Abdoulaye Niass (Father of Sheikh Ibrahim Niass) had disputes with the colonial powers and had to go into exile in the Gambia for ten years to teach the Quran to his children because the colonial authority exercised his dominance but today everyone is free. We need to find solutions to help the Quranic schools instead of capturing children, this is not a viable solution. We know very well the Quranic schools, we lived there and we continue to see more Quran teachers.
I can name more than twenty Quranic schools founded by descendants of the founders of Medina Baye and none of its boarders have to beg. Allah provides assistance to Islam and to the Senegalese people! Today we are witnessing a world in total perdition because of a bad parenting. The Quranic schools have no means but they continue to teach children who are not less likely to become terrorists. We must be more concerned about these Islamic schools who need help so that the children can benefit from an education bequeathed by our forefathers; an Islam which combines all the world, who tolerates all the world and finally who loves peace for everybody .
It is this Islam we have inherited that deserves to be protected. We must also take heed of the place of the students and the people who teach them otherwise everything can be taken from them. Unfortunately this is what happened in Nigeria with Boko Haram and all these terrorist organizations who commit atrocities and crimes all over the world in the name of Islam.
Senegal has always escaped and we can continue to escape it if we are vigilant in our education whilst helping the Quran teachers. We need to preserve our Quranic schools and values that are advocated and we need the government to be galvanized by this fact until there are no more beggars, we pray to God to provide them with his help. Because this is our dearest wish. May Allah guarantee his blessing to the authorities of the republic and the push to work on this that brings good in Senegal.
-Sheikh Mohammad al mahy aliou cissé
Translation dad ablaye baldé
Re-edited for clarity by Sukina Douglass
