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Wednesday, October 20, 2004
Words Fail Me Dept.
To all those who believe that the government-run schools perform a vital and irreplaceable service:
Coming soon to an elementary school near you: mandatory indoctrination in Islamic customs and practices. According to The Kansas City Star, third-, fourth- and fifth-graders in Herndon, Virginia, are to be given lessons in the three Rs: Reading, ‘Riting, and Ramadan. During this instruction, public school children will play act being Muslims, and, perhaps unwittingly, convert to Islam.
Pupils from a nearby Muslim school will visit classes in the town’s public schools to educate their counterparts in Islam. They will be accompanied by something called “a multicultural trainer” named Afeefa Syeed.
In Herndon, during this month of Ramadan (which began Friday), there will be explanations of the fasting month and “role-playing” that requires students to recite Muslim sacred words and imitate their prayer practices. However, whether the speaker understands what he is saying or not, one is considered to have converted to Islam if he confesses a belief in Allah – and this conversion is considered irrevocable. The penalty for apostasy (and much else, from adultery, to homosexuality, to dating anyone in the Islamic world aside from the intended partner of arranged marriages, often made between first cousins) is death.
If further comment is required, I woke up in the wrong country this morning.
Comments
The way to fight this is for every other religion to demand equal time. Christians, Jews, Hindus, Wicanns, Scientologists… everyone. That will force them to cut it out post-haste.
Trying to get them to not teach Islam is just going to get that old “Islamophobe” reaction.Posted by Kathy K on 10/20/2004 at 09:01 AMThe way to fight this is for the parents to pull their children from these schools and engage in a massive letter-writing campaign to everyone who might be interested. This is, in my mind, akin to mandatory classes in Hitler’s mystic beliefs during WW2.
Posted by on 10/20/2004 at 10:28 AMWhaaatttt????
Wrong country hell - I think I woke up in the wrong universe this morning.
Posted by Ironbear on 10/20/2004 at 03:14 PMOk. Front Page Mag doesn’t provide a link to the Kansas City Star article they’re refferencing, and I couldn’t find any other reffernce to this either in a search on the KCS website/articles archives, or in Google using as many relevant search terms as I could string together. In fact, in a Google News search, the Front Page Magazine article was the *only* hit that came up.
I’m going to take the 48 hour rule view on this for the nonce.
Posted by Ironbear on 10/20/2004 at 03:26 PMI hear you, man. When I heard about this, I got so honked off about it that I dumped a load of scorching-hot rhetoric all over a couple of topics on the site I help run (attached) and wound up driving off one of the cohosts.
I’ve since tried to phrase how I feel about it in a more appropriate topic, and without using any cuss words, but the damage has been done.
Posted by Erbo on 10/20/2004 at 06:42 PMhttp://www.alfatih.org/Staff_Faculty.html
“Afeefa Syeed, Co-Director
Afeefa Syeed is the Founding Director of Al Fatih Academy, a community school whose philosophy is integrated learning with an emphasis on civic education and participation. Through the school, she has helped develop the Peace Leaders Program to teach conflict resolution skills to elementary school students. She has also worked to initiate Kids Giving Salaam (Peace) to foster and inculcate the love of community service in children.
Afeefa is a diversity consultant and multicultural trainer based in Northern Virginia. She has consulted with a range of organizations including public school systems in the DC metro area, Simon & Schuster Children’s Book Division, the U.S. State Department, and MTV/Nickelodeon Productions. Afeefa is a member of various interfaith, social service and political action organizations. Her involvement and community activism led her to run for local office in 2003 as the Democratic candidate for the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors from the Potomac District. Afeefa holds a Masters Degree in Applied Anthropology with a focus on Community and Grassroots Development. She is married with three sons.
Afeefa was recently invited to speak at the 2004 Herndon High School Commencement Ceremony. Click here to read her speach.”
Posted by on 10/21/2004 at 01:19 AM
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