A Kuwaiti journalist looks at children's summer camps. From the article, "Religious Summer Camps - Brainwashing, Not Entertainment":
"'The Virtuous Youth Camp,' 'The Noble Aspiration Camp,' 'The Camp of the Fearless,' 'The Budding Youth Club,' 'The Young Generation Camp' - all these and others are names of summer camps that are constantly and prominently advertised in our papers, presenting their programs and competing for [the readers' attention].
"In their margins, many [of the ads] state 'limited space or 'a summer after your own heart' -proclamations aimed at encouraging the public to register. [Other ads] include assurances aimed at the devout religious [public], such as 'no mixing [of the genders].' For those too lazy to register their son or daughter, [some ads even] stress that 'a registration agent will come to your home.'
"The organizers of these camps make [every] effort to bring as many children and youths as possible to their camps. [To this end], they stress that the [program] includes 'English lessons' or 'Koran lessons.'
"But in practice, those who register are compelled [to participate] in intensive religion classes, taught using implausible traditions and stories that have no basis in history. Moreover, the only goal [of these lessons] is to frighten the youths or to 'protect them from Western culture.' This is evident from the testimony of a parent..."
"Bou 'Abd Al-Wahhab told us that last year he was busy and could not send his children to vacation abroad during the summer holidays. Therefore, he decided to register two of them for a summer camp advertised in one of the papers. The cost was negligible - 10 dinars for a whole month.
"[However,] Bou 'Abd Al-Wahhab was distressed when his nine-year-old son asked him [one day] about Afghanistan, and how far it was from Kuwait. When [the father] asked the reason for the questions, [the boy] replied: 'The teacher at camp said that Allah would build a house in Paradise for anyone who goes to Afghanistan and fights those who oppose Islam.'
Somehow this fails to surprise me.
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