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Public schools took prayer out of school, why does Islam feel they can reintroduce religion into schools?
Better yet, why are people not saying anything........
Why not a calligraphy Haiku, why about God at all? One can not ask kids to write one true God and act like this isn't some form of brainwashing.
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The US public schools didn't take prayer out of school. The US Supreme Court ruled against mandatory state-supplied or -enforced or -written prayers. Students (& staff, for that matter) are perfectly free to invoke God, Allah, kami, higher powers & so on - but they are not to be required to do so. (Nor may they disrupt the normal educational effort to do so.)
Did Islam put together this worksheet? As several of our participants here have noted, Islam in general would not approve of their profession of faith being in the hands of non-Islamic children. The worksheet in question was vetted by the state DOE, & meets their academic requirements. If you want to raise a stink about the exercise, those are the people you want to question. Offhand, I would expect that any believer would be appalled that core religious doctrine was taken & used for an exercise in hand-eye, fine motor skills. That's something that the state DOE & etc. should have considered before printing up this particular worksheet, but that's water under the bridge now - or stars in the sky, if you want a more culturally sensitive & appropriate metaphor.
calligraphy was not the point of the exercise - I believe it was an attempt to instill an appreciation of the esthetics of the script, not the message embodied therein.
No, Sikh are not Muslims, any more than Hasidic Jews are. Add to this, Catholic Nuns in Habits are not Muslim women wearing Burkas either.
Besides all the hatred and discrimination, the IGNORANCE is appalling. LEARN about other religions besides you own and your Bible "studies".
They were........'There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.' was the assignment.......do you see the issue yet?
There is a little fine line in public school that should not be crossed...... don't teach my children who you think God is! I can do that if I want them to know or they can explore, if they so choose to.
Why didn't they write; Allah is the God of Islam and Jesus is the Messiah of Christians?
I personally would have ditched the assignment and picked something else, are teachers not given several options on what to teach for the day?
The US public schools didn't take prayer out of school. The US Supreme Court ruled against mandatory state-supplied or -enforced or -written prayers. Students (& staff, for that matter) are perfectly free to invoke God, Allah, kami, higher powers & so on - but they are not to be required to do so. (Nor may they disrupt the normal educational effort to do so.)
Did Islam put together this worksheet? As several of our participants here have noted, Islam in general would not approve of their profession of faith being in the hands of non-Islamic children. The worksheet in question was vetted by the state DOE, & meets their academic requirements. If you want to raise a stink about the exercise, those are the people you want to question. Offhand, I would expect that any believer would be appalled that core religious doctrine was taken & used for an exercise in hand-eye, fine motor skills. That's something that the state DOE & etc. should have considered before printing up this particular worksheet, but that's water under the bridge now - or stars in the sky, if you want a more culturally sensitive & appropriate metaphor.
calligraphy was not the point of the exercise - I believe it was an attempt to instill an appreciation of the esthetics of the script, not the message embodied therein.
Strange out of all the things one can say not religious, this is all they had. Who put this together, are they running short on poems and simple phrases? Is Shakespeare kicked out of schools ?
A different phrase should have been chosen. I do think world religions should absolutely be taught in conjunction with history and current events.
However, it pains me to see people shouting for increased ignorance. Don't teach my kid this, don't teach my kid that. What type of parent wants their child to not gain knowledge? To be ignorant of the world and other people in it?
My point is that Christians should not be offended, and you, a Muslim, should certainly not be, for the simple fact that exposure to elements of your religion would bring better understanding and appreciation. I am responding directly to your previous post that said a Muslim would be offended if a non-Muslim child was writing some sort of script whatever. The point is....stop all this offense business and learn to appreciate each other in the 21st century!
Except, of course, that Islam doesn't count the centuries from the birth of Christ. They count from 622 CE, TMK.
The point being that Islam & Christianity are two very different religions. With the added layer that Islam is also a system of government, law, economics, customs - a Worldview, if you like. Christianity was all of that once, in the days of Christendom.
However, that system broke down in the West, under ideas of nationalism, national languages, physical national borders, & so on. The West went through a quite violent history of wars, insurrections, revolts, civil wars & so on, to resolve the question of church & state. Islam has focused more on orthodox practice, & TMK, theological speculation was frozen centuries ago.
I do like the notion that we (mainly Christian US citizens) should be able to dictate to a member of Islam what should offend him or her & what should not. I think we need an extra serving of hubris here.
I'm embarrassed by my fellow Christian posters here. You were attempting to clarify something and the end result has been a lot of venom.
And at Christmas, no less.
That's OK, the commercial aspect of Christmas mostly seems to be a handy bottom-line kinda deal pressed forward by Coca-Cola & other noted charitable organizations in the West. Certainly I don't recall any Biblical justification for celebrating the birth of Christ on Saturnalia - that was just a convenient hook to hang the thing from, TMK - there was already feasting & carousing & drinking to stupor going on, so why not append yet another reason?
I'm sure that the people who have looked into these questions are vastly amused by the whole spectacle. (Although I do tire of all the Christmas-themed TV specials that are out there. There are only a handful that I think are worth watching - but I will admit to a fondness for Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol - quite touching, even as a musical, given the limitations of the medium.)
Oh goody, I found more: "I will not have my children sit under a woman who indoctrinates them with the Islam religion when I am a Christian, and I'm going to stand behind Christ."
This quote by the offended mother makes me think she's not very secure about her kids' faith. Does she (and the fearful posters in this thread) think they will be indoctrinated during the span of one class??
Reminds me of when I was in Catholic school; we were told that if we even stepped into a Jewish synagogue it would be a mortal sin!
Geez, at least this school is teaching geography! Most schools stopped doing that back in the 70s.
Seriously, Muslim folks need to get into the 21st century, where people find joy and honor in learning about one another. ...
In all fairness, Americans hardly "find joy and honor in learning about one another". Most Americans know virtually nothing about Islam, and could not point to and identify many (if any) Muslim nations on an un-labeled world map.
This quote by the offended mother makes me think she's not very secure about her kids' faith. Does she (and the fearful posters in this thread) think they will be indoctrinated during the span of one class??
I really can't believe people are spinning this as indoctrination. Everyone needs to relax. The kids won't be converted by writing calligraphy one time in one class of something they can't even understand and I imagine frustrated the living hell out of them trying to copy it nicely because again, that sure as hell doesn't look easy.
Like I said, I really think the issue here is solely that it's Islam. If the kids were asked to write something in Hebrew similarly, would there be this outcry? People need to relax. A little education can only help, with the reactions I'm seeing both in the article/from the parents and here.
And yes this mother is a total nut. She more than anyone needs to relax.
Wake up folks- this is the new America. We are being Islamacized, and most people are sleeping. The gov't (including our school systems, and especially Obama) favors Islam over Christianity. I believe it's too late as America is too busy playing with their electronic gadgets to pay attention. As The Bible says "these things must come to pass". Keep ignoring everything, and/or agree with the media bias towards Islam. There is no outrage because most people truly are too ignorant or apathetic to care.
Baloney.
I was a teacher and then a school administrator in a career that lasted 33 years. In all that time I worked with a vast majority of school personnel who were Christian, some who were atheist or agnostic, a handful who were Buddhist, and 2 teacher aides who were Muslim. I may have retired 5 years ago, but I doubt that American education has suddenly shifted to a majority Muslims. It's a ridiculous post.
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Kull wahad!
