The boy couldn’t remember his Koran lesson and needed to be disciplined.
Emirates 24/7 reported, via ROP:
A Koran memorization teacher used his stick to lash a five-year-old school boy, causing bruises and scars all over his back and trigger a police hunt for the fleeing man, a newspaper said on Thursday.
The boy was changing his clothes at home in the western town of Makkah when his parents noticed the lashing marks on his little body.
The boy told his father that the Islamic lessons teacher flogged him with the stick on his back during class at a Koran memorization centre in the holy city.
Update by Andrea Ryan: It looks like not learning Koran lessons receives the same punishment as accidentally stepping on an Imam’s carpet. At least the little boy wasn’t murdered by his teacher, like this seven year old. Brutally punishing children… how effective.