A teacher at a mosque in Bolton “punched and slapped” pupils when they failed to memorise verses from the Koran, a court has heard.
Sohail Musa, 21, is charged with assaulting two of his pupils while he was teaching a class at Zakariyya Mosque in Peace Street on April 20 last year.
Bolton Magistrates’ Court heard on Monday that Musa was a “specialist” who taught pupils how to pronounce verses from the holy book.
Giving evidence by video link, one of the boys, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said Musa “twisted his arm and punched him near his kidneys” when he made a mistake while reciting a verse from the Koran.
The boy, 13, said: “You have to learn it by heart. A specific thing in the holy book by heart. Then, one by one, we sit next to the teacher and we start to pray and if there’s a mistake we get hit.”
Speaking about the assault he said: “He twisted my arm and then punched me. He hit me with his left hand on my right side somewhere near my kidney and my ribs.
“I felt a lot of pain. It really hurt.”
A second boy, also 13, described seeing Musa hitting, slapping and pulling the ears of his fellow pupils if they made mistakes.
Peter Turner, defending, said that the boys’ version of events was not the truth. He said Musa had warned the first boy about his behaviour and patted him on the back when “he tried to encourage him to behave”.
Musa, of Croston Street, Bolton, denies two counts of assault. A third charge was dismissed when the victim did not turn up to court.