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February 21, 2010

Islamic Child Preacher on Egyptian TV


Child Preacher Delivers a Speech on Children's Love of Martyrdom on Egyptian TV

by Satbir Singh Bedi
February 20, 2010 17:06
cplash

In a recent TV children's show, aired on the Egyptian Al-Rahma TV, a child preacher, Abd Al-Fattah Marwan, recites the legend of Abu Qudama and the young boy, who died a martyr on the battlefield in the early days of Islam. In the legend, which glorifies Jihad and martyrdom, the boy, Muhammad, is said to have beseeched Abu Qudama to let him join the Jihad against the infidels despite his young age. After shooting three arrows, which killed "three Byzantine soldiers," he died a martyr's death and went to Paradise. There he met his wife-to-be, whose face radiated blinding light and whose beauty was maddening.

In the program, Abd Al-Fattah Marwan – himself a child – recounts that the boy smiled in his sleep when he dreamt that he would be martyred the next day. "My father was martyred last year, and my brother and uncle the year before that," he says. This year, "my mother has presented me as a gift to Allah." Paradise is described in endearing terms, as full of "a scented bouquet of black-eyed virgins" of indescribable beauty.

The mother, upon hearing the news of her son's martyrdom and when her daughter drops dead from shock, praises Allah, "who did not send any offspring of mine to the Hellfire."

To view this clip on MEMRI TV, visit: http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/2383.htm.

Also featured is a story about the burial of the boy – in this version called Sa'id – told by Egyptian cleric Sheik Muhammad Nassar to a TV studio audience of spellbound elementary school children. The show aired on the Egyptian Al-Nas TV on June 15, 2006.

To view this clip from the MEMRI TV archives, visit: http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1185.htm.

For further clips on child indoctrination on TV, visit: http://www.memritv.org/subject/en/178.htm.

To read the transcript of the speech, visit:
http://cplash.com/post/Child-preacher-delivers-a-speech-on-Childrens-love-of-martyrdom-on-Egyptian-TV394.html.