Free Republic

Even though I live near and enjoy the friendship of several Muslims, I do not understand the Muslim intolerance for almost all things not their own. More fairly, I do not understand the extreme intolerance of the radicalized textbooks and teaching aids used in several Muslim nation; Iran chief among them. The Israel-based Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace just completed a study that reports on the lack of tolerance in Iran’s school textbooks. The study analyzed 95 textbooks and 20 teacher’s guides used at Iran’s state-run schools. The study found a systematic effort to denigrate western culture, traditions...

Muslims who want to live under the Islamic Sharia law were told Wednesday to get out of Australia as the government targeted radicals in a bid to head off potential terror attacks. A day after a group of mainstream Muslim leaders pledged loyalty to Australia at a special meeting with Prime Minister John Howard, he and his ministers made it clear that extremists would face a crackdown. Treasurer Peter Costello, seen as heir apparent to Howard, hinted that some radical clerics could be asked to leave the country if they did not accept that Australia was a secular state and...

Local Muslim school taken aback by letter Its request to join a state group is met by 'hostile' queries By EDWARD HEGSTROM Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle A national Islamic organization has demanded an apology from a Texas-based private school association after claiming its director took an "alarmingly intolerant and hostile attitude toward Islam and Muslims." The protest by the Washington, D.C.-based Council on American-Islamic Relations was prompted by a letter sent by the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools to the representatives of an Islamic school in Houston. Dar-Ul-Arqam, which enrolls more than 300 students at three area locations...

WASHINGTON: Muslim extremists in Southeast Asia are "sowing the seeds of terror" by financially backing mosques and schools supporting their radical brand of Islam, a report prepared by the US State Department has found. According to a report in The News , the report, which was released earlier this week, said that the Muslims in Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Cambodia "are vulnerable to such radical influences." The report further said that Asia was the hardest hit by terrorism in 2003, recording both the highest number of terror attacks and the greatest loss of life. A total of 159...

Pentagon probes its Muslim school choice WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 (UPI) -- A school the Pentagon relied on to train Muslim military chaplains is under investigation for possible ties to al-Qaida, ABC News reported Tuesday. For the last six years, the Pentagon used an unaccredited school in Leesburg, Va., to train and certify most of its 13 Muslim chaplains. But in the last 18 months, the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences also has been part of a federal investigation into possible financial ties to al-Qaida, ABC reported. One of the chaplains mentioned in correspondence between the Pentagon and the...

<p>Through a new $255 million reform package, the Pakistani government is trying to do something that has never been done before: wrest control of the country's 8,000 religious schools from the mullahs. The clerics, obviously, have pledged to resist. The Muslim religious schools, known as madrassas, are blamed for spreading intolerance and hatred against the West. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, a key U.S. ally in the war against terror, has pledged not to allow this to continue. Previous attempts to bring the madrassas under the government's control have failed, but the Musharraf government says it will succeed. "We are not looking to confront the [religious scholars], we want a constructive engagement," says Information Minister Shaikh Rashid. But Maulana Fazlur Rahman, who leads the country's largest religious political alliance — the MMA or Muttahid Majlis-e-Amal — says what the government really wants is to control the madrassas. "We will not let that happen — never." There are thousands of madrassas in Pakistan, and along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Through these madrassas, religious leaders such as Mr. Rahman exert enormous influence over hundreds of thousands of madrassa students and often use them to promote their brand of violent politics.</p>

MADISON — Some students at Madison Area Memorial High School are objecting to studying the Arab and Muslim culture and religion while the United States is at war with Iraq. About three dozen students have signed a petition that calls for seniors to be given the option to take alternative assignments in the senior English class project, according to 18-year-old senior Richard Poulin, who circulated the petition. "There are students who don't feel comfortable with this right now with the events that are taking place in Iraq," Poulin said. "I and others have family and friends over there right now...

EINDHOVEN, Netherlands (AP) — The Tarieq Ibnoe Ziyad elementary school looks a lot like any other Dutch school. The kids lug Mickey Mouse school bags and study in Dutch. They are also children of Muslim immigrant families. Once a week they study the Quran and religious subjects. The girls wear headscarves and attend sports classes without the boys. Last month, their school was one of several identified by an Internal Security Service report as a possible threat to the Dutch way of life. The Tarieq Ibnoe Ziyad school, which has a student body of 208 children, all from Somali, Moroccan...