A court in Mali has sentenced 11 men to up to three years in prison for refusing to let their children be vaccinated against polio. Passing the sentences, the judge said the men were convicted of "resisting authority, disobedience and rebellion". | In this case, they really are doing it "for the children". |
He said they members of an obscure Muslim sect who believed only God could make people sick or save them.
They opposed the polio vaccination because they believed it would make their daughters sterile.
| "We want our girls to crank out lots of Islamic babies, we just don't want them to enjoy it!" |
Several Muslim-dominated states in northern Nigeria banned the United Nations polio vaccination programme last year because some Imams denounced it as a western plot to spread infertility among African girls. UN health workers said the result was a resurgence of the disease across several countries in West Africa. Polio affects mostly young children and targets the nervous system. It can lead to paralysis or even death.
| Even if Islam evaporated tomorrow and these guys became Christians, they'd be the ones passing the snakes. |
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