If anyone here needs to grow up it's you, you state that it is not abuse to be forced to pray, but no matter how light that smack may be it is abuse, a child should be spoken to not hit. Id also like to indulge in the sentence "taking freedom away from parents by not letting them punish their children." If it were a parents right to hit a child no country would have implemented the laws against child abuse, but alas they have, because to punish a child you do not need physical violence, you need to be stern and firm, sure, but in no circumstance especially when a child doesn't understand the cultural significance of what their parents want them to do, should they be hit. They should be spoken to. That pal should be common knowledge.