Smiles fade as summer ends

he poor children being sent to back-to-school boot camps, let them relax (‘Facebook live: Do we need back-to-school boot camps?’, Gulf News, August 24). We have such wonderful memories of lazy mornings, reading storybooks and playing in the garden with giggling friends and cousins. Scrambling for the last biscuit or chocolate, beaches and ice cream and simply being children. As it is with holiday homework and the schools re-opening, you can see the smile fading a bit. If you send them to boot camp, there will be no smiles! From Mr Manu Radha Anand Ramachandran UAE Facebook comment

A precious time

Let them have a childhood. Successful people today were not even all graduates. As long as they do well in all aspects of life, let them have a childhood. This time will never come back. From Ms Rochel Pereira Furtado UAE Facebook comment

Skill development

Boot camps appear to be an idea to keep children engaged, as parents can’t have two-and-half months of vacation. They need a place to engage children. In all fairness, preparing to go back to school means nothing. It’s over training. However, camps to let children have fun, pursue a hobby or sport can be a good idea so they can explore their personality and likings. Children can take up additional languages. Summer vacations can be best used to explore what you can’t do in school. It’s about skill development and exploring the world around us rather than getting ready to go back to school. From Mr Praveen Mehta UAE Facebook comment

Let them be free

L et children enjoy their summer vacation. Let them be free of any routines and timings. I am a mother and I can surely say that once they are in school, they will get used to it. From Ms Jaseela Nazim Calicut, India Facebook comment

Glorified babysitting?

I t’s a good idea, but there are three sides. Parents say, no they deserve a break. Other parents will say, yes, it’s a

good idea, take my children. Other parents will say teachers can babysit our children, so yes you can have them. From Mr Tan Alam UAE Facebook comment

Let them explore

I t is not all required. Children are children. Let them enjoy, let them learn from their surroundings. After all, what is life for if not exploring? From Mr Mohammad Kunheedu UAE Facebook comment

Give them a break

I am a teacher and just like you and me, whatever job we do, we need a break. Children are no different. Give them a break. You wouldn’t stand for constant pressure like this. Give them a chance to recuperate. They will be okay. They will succeed. Just treat them like children. Give them a break. From Ms Celia Cookson UAE Facebook comment

Safety matters most

E ach country has got different rules and regulations and Canada is firm in its decision to tell US tourists to leave their guns at home when they visit Canada (‘Canada tells US tourists to leave guns at home’, Gulf News, August 24). Seeing the American gun culture and the incidents that have taken many lives, Canada has done well enforcing the law. Ultimately, safety is very important. From Mr K. Ragavan Bengaluru, India

Religious discrimination

I would like to raise awareness how religion is not a parallel about to extremism. I’m lucky enough to live in a place where people of all religious beliefs can thrive under a beautiful tapestry of harmony, where your religion does not affect how people treat you. But that’s not the same for the rest of the world.

Religion is under a thick layer of pressure, it’s under a suffocating blanket of apparent extremism. Islam is often scoffed at and tossed into a pile of maybe-terrorism. We live in a world where if a man who happens to be a Muslim picks up a gun, he’s labelled a terrorist. We live in a world where a Republican candidate in the US, Jeb Bush, thinks that it’s a good idea to segregate Syrian refugees on the basis of their religion and only cater to those who are Christians. And this, for some reason, is not considered extremism. Extremism is not parallel to religion. Religion is not extremism, individual people become extremists. And categorising any religion as extremism is unacceptable. From Mr Paakhi Bhatnagar Dubai

Stopping hate crimes

A ccording to Scotland Yard statistics, Islamophobic attacks and religious hate crimes have increased at an alarming level. The Daily Mail reported that two Muslim women in Boston were led off a passenger plane, as one of the flight attendants did not like the way the women stared at her. Recently, Maulana Akonjee, a 55-year-old old Imam and his assistant were shot dead outside the mosque in Queens, New York City in the US. Many believe that these two men were targeted because of their faith. These are hate crimes.

An attack on any place of worship, regardless of what religion, is an attack on a way of life and on a community and, therefore, it is an attack on the entire world. Islamophobic attacks include burning and vandalising mosques, shooting cab drivers and assaults on Muslim women with 80 per cent targeted for wearing the hijab.

Needless to say, such attackers have no sense of humanity, values and principles. Islam invites peace to avoid the bloodshed of innocents without any distinction of religion, colour, gender or ethnicity.

Every day seems to bring news of mass shootings or acts of hate towards a minority.

Donald Trump doubled down on his proposal to ban Muslims from immigrating to the US. The bigotry in this statement shows hate and a rift.

It is time to reject the so-called religious and political radicalism and all those who fund, train and support those devilish forces of darkness and destruction. From Mr Mumtaz Hussain Dubai

Forcible Ganpati donations

A nother shocker from Pune, India, my birthplace, was that Muslim bakery workers were forced to do sit ups for refusing to pay donations for the Ganpati festival. Since my childhood I have seen these festival volunteers forcibly collecting money from all and especially businesses to celebrate the annual festival as the money is spent on loud music, film star appearances and dance shows. Religion being a matter of faith or, as they call it, ‘astha’ should be done from one’s own pocket money and not to be collected as tax from others. This is how the so-called volunteers, mostly belonging to the Shiv Sena, keep themselves employed. From Ms Nigar Dubai

Will she talk?

T his is in reference to Nalini Chidambaram, wife of former Indian Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, who has been called by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in India to inquire about the Saradha Group financial scandal. Since she is the legal adviser to the Saradha Group, we are not sure whether the ED would be able to elicit any information from her, as her first priority would be to save her client. In my opinion, this is going to be a futile exercise. Let us wait and see as to whether this case, too, would face the same fate as the stockbroker, Harshad Mehta, in the 1990s! From Mr N. Viswanathan Virugambakkam, India

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