Islamic school in Toronto apologizes for anti-Jewish material in curriculum

TORONTO An Islamic school in Toronto is apologizing for offensive material in its curriculum that called Jews “treacherous,” contrasted Islam with “the Jews and the Nazis” and told boys to exercise so they are “ready for jihad.”

The apology came a day after police and the Toronto District School Board said they were investigating complaints about the material, which was posted on the East End Madrassah’s website. The school has since removed it.

The material should never have been part of its curriculum and a team of scholars is reviewing all texts and materials, the school said in a release.

“Our curriculum is not intended to promote hatred towards any individual or group of people, rather the children are taught to respect and value other faiths, beliefs and to uphold Canada’s basic values of decency and tolerance,” it said.

“We unreservedly apologize to the Jewish community for the unintentional offence that the item has caused.”

Premier Dalton McGuinty weighed in on the controversy Tuesday, saying he’s pleased both police and the Toronto District School Board were investigating whether the school was promoting hatred.

“There is no room for hatred or intolerance in this province,” said McGuinty, who is expected to meet with Israeli President Shimon Peres on Wednesday.

The complaint came from the Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, which found the material on the school’s website and alerted the school that it had lodged a complaint.

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs denounced the material as “offensive and abhorrent.”

“Such slurs against the Jewish community violate the values that Canadians hold dear, such as goodwill and mutual respect,” Sheldon Goodman, the centre’s Greater Toronto co-chairman, said in a statement.

“Instead of promoting such values, this curriculum only serves to promote animosity, racism and hatred.”

The school has a permit from the school board to teach lessons on Sunday from rented space in a public school in the city’s east end.

The centre said the board should more carefully scrutinize who rents its space and take a closer look at what’s being taught on its property.

Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak urged the minister of education to work with police to investigate the complaints and “prosecute this to the fullest extent of the law.”

“Israel has no greater friend than Canada,” Hudak said. “I’m proud of that and our province should be in the exact same position.”

“It’s not a matter of reviewing materials,” Hudak said. “This is hatred. This is poison. This type of material has no place in our classrooms, no place in the province.”

‘Anti-Semitic’ Islamic school curriculum links to Iran ‘totally baseless’: cleric - National Post
Stewart Bell May 11, 2012 – 11:19 AM ET | Last Updated: May 12, 2012 12:39 PM ET
A cleric affiliated with a Toronto madrassah under police investigation over its portrayal of Jews has dismissed as “absolutely baseless” concerns that school teaching materials were written in Iran.

In a video posted online, Imam Sayed Muhammad Rizvi addressed followers about the “crisis” that has erupted at the East End Madrassah, which had been using texts that referred to “crafty,” “treacherous Jews” and contrasted Islam with “the Jews and the Nazis.”

The passages are excerpts from two books published by Iranian foundations, including one directly controlled by the government of Iran — whose president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is well known for his anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial.

Imam Rizvi, who is listed on the school website as its “Guidance Alim,” said while the madrassah had apologized and vowed to review its teaching materials, “there is one newspaper in Canada which has its own you know agenda, more on the right wing side. You know, they wouldn’t let it go.”

He said, “once they found the book, you know, published by authors in Iran, immediately now you know the attempt has been by that newspaper to connect the curriculum to that foreign government, the madrassah to that government and the jamaat [assembly] to that government, which is absolutely baseless.”

Speaking on the topic of “rumors and false information,” he quoted Muslim scripture that warned against believing information received from sinners. “This is not the time for our members of the community to point fingers at one another, this is the time to unite,” he said.

Shimon Fogel, CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, said the problem is broader in scope than the teaching materials.

“We think that when Canadians examine the full record, they will conclude that the problem with this curriculum is not merely one of language, but rather of the disturbing public record of those who published it,” Mr. Fogel said in response to the video.

The East End Madrassah rents space at a high school run by the Toronto District School Board. Its curriculum documents not only referred to Jews in disparaging terms but also advised boys to keep fit so they would be ready for jihad. Girls, meanwhile, were told to limit their involvement in physical activities and to instead engage in hobbies that would prepare them to become mothers and wives.

After finding what they considered “anti-Semitic” material on the madrassa’s website, Canadian Jewish groups filed complaints with the Toronto school board and York Region Police. The school promptly apologized and took the materials off its website.

On Tuesday, Imam Rizvi told reporters the passages in question had been wrongly lifted from two websites. But the section that describes “treacherous” and “crafty” Jews as well as Jewish “plots” and “conspiracies” is actually from Prophet Muhammad: A Brief Biography, published by the Al Balagh Foundation in Tehran.

The Nazi comparison is from A Glance at the Life of the Holy Prophet of Islam, published by the Mostazafan Foundation of New York, which the FBI alleges was a front organization secretly controlled by the Iranian regime.

The East End Madrassah is one of three schools affiliated with the Islamic Shia Ithna Asheri Jamaat, which once demanded the Ontario government apologize for hosting Salman Rushdie, the British author condemned to death by Iran over his book The Satanic Verses.

More recently, Mr. Rizvi complained in a sermon posted online that the West was “hyping the whole world up” against Iran over its nuclear program, adding, “this is all because of this fellow sitting in the Middle East, Israel.”

In a communiqué issued Thursday, Imam Rizvi said his centre was an active member of the MOSAIC Interfaith Group and hosted up to 200 group visits by non-Muslims students.

“Therefore, while the revelation of the existence of inappropriate language used in the material on the East End Madrassah (EEM) website is hurtful to the Jewish community, and an unreserved apology has been offered to them, it was also hurtful to us because we sense that this may have disappointed our fellow citizens who have known us and what we stand for,” the statement said.

“The EEM has acknowledged a failure within its internal system that has enabled unauthorized content to be included in the textbook without appropriate review. We are committed to improve the system to ensure that such mistakes are not repeated. This is not consistent with the actions of our numerous sub-committees, affiliates, and initiatives that benefit the community, only one of which is the EEM.”
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/05/11/anti-semitic-islamic-school-curriculum-links-to-iran-totally-baseless-cleric/

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