Kids told to write 'Allah is God'

[Aptrgangr]

Kids told to write 'Allah is God'

By ALASTAIR TAYLOR
August 06, 2007

ANGRY parents have blasted a teacher for telling ten-year-olds to copy a Muslim prayer saying “There is no God but Allah”.

Helen Green is said to have picked the Muslim call to prayer as HAND-WRITING practice.

It includes the lines “Allah is the greatest” and “I bear witness that there is no God but Allah”.

Pupil Billy Darbyshire’s stepmum Hayley Clayton said: “The explanation was that the children were learning about Islam in RE.

“But this was like he was taking an oath. A Muslim child would never be asked to write a Bible passage.

“Why didn’t she choose a passage from a normal story book to teach handwriting?”
Hayley, 23, said Mrs Green — deputy head of Newlands Primary School in Wakefield, West Yorks — had acknowledged it was a “sensitive issue” because three of the 7/7 suicide bombers came from Leeds, 15 miles away.

She added: “If it’s sensitive why choose that prayer?”

Billy’s angry dad Martin, 32, said there were no Muslims in the ten-year-old’s class. He added: “I am not religious but it offended me.

“It must have been worse for children whose parents do have different beliefs.”
Wakefield Council officials said they believed the prayer had been written for RE.

The Sun Online - News: Kids told to write \'Allah is God\'

[Kernunnos]

It is nto casual. Liberals are spitting on Christianism just because they have a secret fascination with Islam.

[Errigal]

I lose a little more respect for schoolteachers almost every day.

[Arthur Gordon Pym]

School have become centers for indoctrination these days and not educational facilities any more.

Liberals are fascinated with anyting alien, this time it's Islam.

Anyway, that what these pupils did wasn't even correct from the viewpoint of Islam, because they should have written it in Arabic and not in English.

[layke]

I know for a fact through in Ireland the church and state are still one and when I was in school I had to learn about god. Religion has never made any sense to me at all and I wish it wasn't like that back then. However i'm glad to see it's changed a lot now for the younger generation.

Now Personally I think the whole point of Religious education should be to teach tolerance and understanding for various religions. Not to learn that certain religion is the right or wrong one. I can see how the parents were annoyed but I have to ask the religion of the said teacher as it's not mentioned. If she's a christian I wouldn't be overly worried.

[Monolith]

Originally Posted by layke

Now Personally I think the whole point of Religious education should be to teach tolerance and understanding for various religions. Not to learn that certain religion is the right or wrong one.

Basically, it should be that way. But this tolerance thing caused great damage to numerous European countries, such as France and Germany. Europe's governments tried to assimilate and/or incorporate immigrants(various religions) into their own countries. This actions caused detrimental effect to Europe's society, and today countries are facing new generations of immigrant children, that were born in Europe.

Result: Staggering birth and growth rates of immigrant people the increase of their total number in our countries. EU becoming multicultural and liberal entity, much like US.




This picture is taken from the official EU site.
Judge for yourself...

[Errigal]

Originally Posted by layke

I know for a fact through in Ireland the church and state are still one and when I was in school I had to learn about God. Religion has never made any sense to me at all and I wish it wasn't like that back then. However i'm glad to see it's changed a lot now for the younger generation.

The education of children has always been more a Church than State responsibility so it is natural for the Church to still have a role.

Originally Posted by layke

Now Personally I think the whole point of Religious education should be to teach tolerance and understanding for various religions. Not to learn that certain religion is the right or wrong one. I can see how the parents were annoyed but I have to ask the religion of the said teacher as it's not mentioned. If she's a christian I wouldn't be overly worried.

I myself think the main task of religious education is to teach children about their own religion and only later discuss others. One of the big problems I've seen with comparative religion courses is the non-Christian religions are almost always presented in the very best light while Christianity gets burdened with all the bad things in our past.

[Menydh]

Originally Posted by Errigal

I lose a little more respect for schoolteachers almost every day.

Aside from this yet-another-incident-in-a-long-list, school teacher used to be a very vocational profesion in the past. I remember many of my teachers who, although I made them go through hell and they retaliated, I keep a warm memory of them.

Nowadays it is just another means to earn money. Teachers used to punish us with longer hours, and even in the weekends, which also implied a self-punishment for themselves for which they wouldn't get any additional remuneration. I wonder how many would be willing to do that today.

[Heretik]

Is it just me or the teacher's name doesn't sound muslim?
Weird!

[Waarnemer]

dogmatic indoctrination of children should be a felony