Posted on 10/10/2004 6:07:29 AM PDT by tdewey10
Posted on Sat, Oct. 09, 2004
Teaching Ramadan in public schools
Accurate lessons in demand after 9/11
By HOLLY LEBOWITZ ROSSI
Religion News Service
During the next few weeks, multicultural trainer Afeefa Syeed will bring third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students from a Muslim academy in Herndon, Va., to nearby public schools to share the practices and beliefs of their holiest month, Ramadan.
Syeed and the children will present the call to prayer in Arabic, display prayer rugs and offer tastes of dates. In countless other classrooms across the country, similar efforts will be made to educate students about the time of fasting and spiritual reflection for adherents of the world's second-largest religion.
Ramadan, which likely will begin Oct. 15, depending on the sighting of the new moon, is making more appearances in public school classrooms, thanks to a series of new teacher training initiatives, an increased fascination with Islam and the assurance that schools, if careful, can educate impressionable children about religion without crossing a constitutional line.
The Council on Islamic Education, a nonprofit organization based in California, plans to release an updated version of its booklet “Muslim Holidays,” which was first published in 1997, for the more than 4,000 teachers nationwide who have used it.
The booklet, which contains lesson plan ideas and historical and cultural background on Ramadan and other Muslim holidays, also outlines the various state regulations governing instruction about religion in public schools and discusses accommodations that schools can make to enable Muslim students to observe the holiday.
Muslim educators note tremendous progress in education about Ramadan and Islam in general in public schools, particularly since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 — perpetrated by extremist Muslims — brought Islam into the national spotlight.
Another reason for this success, some say, is an increased general awareness in public education circles of what is constitutionally appropriate to teach about religion.
In 1995, President Clinton released “Religious Expression in Public Schools: A Statement of Principles,” guidelines on promoting the free exercise of religion in schools without endorsing a particular faith. The Freedom Forum First Amendment Center in Arlington, Va., subsequently launched a series of training initiatives to remind public school officials nationwide of the regulations concerning religion in schools.
Unlike the political situation, which has become divisive in some ways, “the educational arena came out unscathed” by increased attention on Islam since Sept. 11, said Shabbir Mansuri, founding director of the Council on Islamic Education.
Whereas Ramadan used to garner only cursory attention from public school teachers, Muslim education consultants say, interest in deeper understanding of the holiday has spiked.
“They want to know accurate information,” said Sharifa Alkhateeb, president of the Washington-based Muslim Education Council.
For teachers and administrators, as well as fellow students, explaining Ramadan helps the school accommodate the religious requirements of the holiday.
For example, at puberty, children begin to participate in the daily fast, which lasts from sunrise to sundown each day of the month. Many schools arrange for Muslim students to sit in the library during lunchtime so that they are not surrounded by food as they fast.
Educators cite Ramadan as a good opportunity to teach students about Islam and its practice. But teaching Ramadan in public schools has not been without controversy. Last year a federal judge said that the Byron Union School District in California could continue a three-week curriculum that emphasized role-playing exercises requiring, among other things, seventh-grade students to recite Muslim prayers.
Despite the ruling in the district's favor, the school suspended the program because of the outcry the lawsuit spawned.
Crucial to avoiding these kinds of problems, say educators, is understanding the difference between “teaching” and “teaching about” religion.
Role-playing exercises that require students to recite sacred words or imitate Muslim prayer practices simply are not appropriate.
“It is a wonderful method in teaching history, but when it comes to religion, we will have to modify it a bit,” Mansuri said.
Syeed, who also uses a globe in her presentation to show students that Muslims live all over the world, says her lesson plan “The Seven S's of Ramadan” highlights aspects of Islam that children of other faith backgrounds can relate to, like patience, peace and gratitude.
“It's really just to define who we are on our own terms and make the connection with a much larger, universal aspect,” she said.
Maybe the little twerps will cut somebody's head off in their roll-playing...
We should teach our children about Islam. But, don't start with 9-11. Start with Mohammad. There is plenty to learn that creates a perfect contrast to Jesus Christ. You could start with how Mohammad, while fasting, had delusional visions in a cave which he thought was the word of God. Then you can teach the orginal acts of terror under Islam as the Mohammedans attacked merchant caravans traveling from Syria to Mecca. This started the first of three Meccan wars, after each, Mohammad eliminated a tribe of Jews living in Medina. Then of course there is the spread of Islam - by the sword. When the children are a little older, they can also learn how Mohammad was a pedophile. For greatest impact, the lessons should include modern day practices of Islam in Saudi Arabia, Iran and around the world.
Where's the ACLU? No religion in public schools...
I doubt that they will teach the origin of Ramadan.
Ramadan and the pilgrimage to Mecca were practiced by the idol worshipping cults of Arabia before Muhammad was born. These were centered around the black rock called Allah.
http://www.prophetofdoom.net/
Using this logic, every single Spanish teacher should teach "about" Christianity and Catholocism, and English teacher should teach "about" the Protestant Reformation, the Anglican Church, the Papacy, and the American Protestant movement.
This course will be the usual whitewash. An honest appraisal of Muhammadanism means the children learn about Muhammed's murderous "examples" as well as his beneficent ones.
The decapitation of 700 Qurazya Jewish men is typical of Muhammed's murderous examples as found in KKKoran and Hadith.
Even while thier heads are being chopped off.
Muhammed's decapitation of 700 Jewish men of the Qurazya tribe and his gang's taking of the women as sex slaves.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=5195
http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&q=decapitated+qurayza&spell=1
These decapitations by Muhammad are being emulated by his followers today. Islam is all about copying Muhammad's "examples" from the "most perfect life ever lived". Islam is the monkey see, monkey do religion.
Notes on the Hadith and Sunnah: The authority of the Prophet and ...
... Allah, and whoever turns away--We have not send you as a watcher over them.} 7.
Allah has commanded us to take His Messenger as the perfect example and to ...
www.islamworld.net/auth.html - 7k -Cached - Similar pages
"Unbelievable. I want to know if in addition to the Islamic "Call for Prayer" if they have a Catholic Mass, Christian Hymns, Jewish reading of the Torah. Somehow I think not.
I do not understand the liberal attempts to embrace Islam and allow it into public schools. Don't they get the fact that a hell of a lot of them want to kill us?
1 posted on 10/10/2004 6:07:30 AM PDT by tdewey10 "
Worth repeating. Odd, after WWII German and Japanese kids didn't come into U.S. public schools attempting to get children to embrace their cultures.
"Why isn't the American Criminal Liberties Union crying foul and filing suit to prevent this?"
Because they approve of it, it's part of their secular agenda
Gosh, if they really wanted to get into vocational training with this they could teach the kids how to wire up a bomb vest.
"multicultural trainer Afeefa Syeed"
Afeeta Syeed is not a "multicultural trainer", but an "Moslem culture traniner". One of the big myths of "multiculturalism" is that the promotors of any particular foreign monoculture are "multiculturalists". The big proponents of [unfortunately increasingly] mainstream "multiculturalism" are either people who have no respect for the validity of their own culture [guilty and ignorant white liberals] and foreign monoculturalists who see something to gain.
I also think a lot of leftists hope that if the Jihadists win, they will cut them some slack rather than cutting their throats because the left sided with the Jihadists and made their victory possible.""
In other words: Keep feeding the alligator in the hopes that he doesn't eat you.
The leftist lexicon is a treasure trove for the Mohammedans to mine. All a part of taqiyya, deception.
Faith Freedom International :: View topic - Taqiyya or kitman ...
... According to Christian ethics lying is a sin; In Islamic ... Taqiyya and the Deceptive
use of Jihad: The contemporary ... jihad is the fourth pillar of Islam and is a ...
www.faithfreedom.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=178 - 101k -Cached - Similar pages
"Educators cite Ramadan as a good opportunity to teach students about Islam and its practice."
Gee, and I there thought 9/11 was a good opportunity to teach students about Islam and its practice, not to mention the assorted sundry televised beheadings coming to a website near you each week, and the charming reports from Darfur, and so on.
I wonder how these folks handle the inconvenient later passages in the Qu'ran (and the corresponding invective from the Hadith) such as 47:4: "Therefore, when ye meet the Unbelievers, smite at their necks; At length, when ye have thoroughly subdued them, bind a bond firmly (on them): thereafter (is the time for) either generosity or ransom: Until the war lays down its burdens", and 8:39: "And fight them on until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in Allah altogether and everywhere", and, from the Hadith, "The last hour will not come before the Muslims fight the Jews and the Muslims kill them, so that Jews will hide behind stones and trees and the Stone and the tree will say, O Muslim, O servant of God! There is a Jew behind me; come and kill him. The only exception will be the box-thorn for it is one of the trees of the Jews."
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