Source: The Daily Mail
A Muslim father was today given a six-month suspended jail term after a court heard how he encouraged his 10-year-old son to flog himself during a centuries-old religious ceremony.
Jurors found the taxi driver, 49, guilty of being cruel to a child after being told that the youngster, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was allowed to beat himself at a mosque in Birmingham.
Prosecutors said the man, who lives in Rugby, Warwickshire, was the second Muslim to be convicted of cruelty as a result of allowing a boy take part in the Matam Zanjeer ceremony.
During the ceremony men beat themselves with a Zanjeer - a wooden implement which has chains and blades attached to it - to commemorate the death and martyrdom of a 7th-century Muslim leader.