Paris attacks are affecting Muslim children

Many parents have found it hard to talk to their children about the Paris attacks in which 130 people were killed – but it has been particularly difficult for Muslim families. With that in mind, a daily children’s newspaper is devoting Tuesday’s pages to its young Muslim readers.

“When I arrived at school last Monday, some friends treated me like a terrorist,” says nine-year-old Ayman. “I spoke to my teacher. She explained to my classmates that being a Muslim does not make you a terrorist.”

“I was shocked, I spoke to my mum about it. I was afraid, afraid that they [terrorists] are coming to my city too,” says Mohamed, who is also nine.

Both were speaking to the French newspaper for six-to-10-year-olds, Le Petit Quotidien. After the attacks, the paper and its sister editions for older children, Mon Quotidien and l’actu, dedicated four days to explaining what had happened and answering readers’ questions.

Image copyrightMon Quotidien

“We got praised by parents and teachers saying, ‘We really needed your words to be able to explain such an unexplainable things to our kids,’” says editor Francois Dufour. But he received about 10 letters that were not so congratulatory.

“They were from Muslim parents,” he says. They told him, “You cannot write that those guys [the attackers] are Muslims because they are not Muslims, they are just using Islam. Some of us believe in the strict application of Islam and that doesn’t make us terrorists.”

So he launched an appeal for Muslims readers to get in touch to share their feelings and experiences over the past 10 days. “It was not easy to convince them to talk,” he says. Those who did, revealed they were “frightened, astonished and disgusted – even more so if they are Muslim because they are disgusted that some guys are using their religion to kill.

“The kids have been extremely shocked to learn that some of the terrorists are French, so it was French killing French, and that was absolutely astonishing for them.”

As well as talking about their horror, the youngest readers also shared their own experience of Islam. “I learned that you can’t steal or hit,” says Shaima. “For me, Islam is to give food and money to poor people, build hospitals to help the sick, give my coat to someone who needs it,” writes Alicia-Rim.

Source:http://www.bbc.com/news