Excerpt:
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.