Dear Editor: Nothing Wrong With Taking Kids To A Mosque

American Thinker ^ | September 22, 2010 | Stella Paul

[Trafalgar123]

Who cares if Wellesley public school middle students were taken on a field trip to a Boston mosque, supposedly to study mosque architecture, and the boys wound up prostrate on the floor, worshipping Allah?

It was good for them, because they learned to relax! So just stop worrying about the Constitution, already. Islamic worship can be meditative. Try it sometime.

So says a self-described "atheist leader of a church youth group," whose letter to the Boston Globe is today's winner of the Grand Prize Dhimmi Award! Congratulations for leading the way in cheerful submission to our new Islamic overlords.

Here's the letter:

REGARDING THE Wellesley middle school students' field trip to the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center in Roxbury: I have led middle-school groups to mosques in the Boston area - including the Roxbury Islamic center - as well as to Jewish, Hindu, Mormon, Catholic, and Evangelical Christian houses of worship, albeit under the auspices of a church youth group. At the Roxbury center, we were welcome observers, neither encouraged nor discouraged from participating in prayers, although a few of us did make a stab at it.

What differentiates a Muslim prayer service from Jewish or most Christian services is that the prayer is a physical act - kneeling on the ground and placing your forehead to the floor. It is relaxing and meditative, whether you are reciting the spoken prayer or not. I doubt any of the Wellesley children recited the prayer, since it is in Arabic. Perhaps they experienced the meditative quality in the same way that singing a hymn would impart a bit of the Christian or Jewish experience.

Yes, children are impressionable, which is precisely why they should be taught, with some direct experience, about the diversity of world religions. As a Unitarian and an atheist, I have found this experience to foster interest and perspective, instead of fear and misunderstanding.

Perhaps members of Americans for Peace and Tolerance (how Orwellian), who so vehemently object to the field trip, should try meditating instead of getting all worked up about it. Relax. Kneel on the ground. And place your forehead on the floor.

Russell Tanner Lexington

[Trafalgar123]

The gold standard of dhimmitude!

[pillut48]

C’mon, Russell, you know there would be protest groups going after these teachers and parents if the headline was “Dear Editor: Nothing Wrong With Taking Kids To A Church” or “Dear Editor: Nothing Wrong With Taking Kids To A Synagogue”, admit it!

[marron]

Great. So, next week take them to mass. And the following week, take them to a Baptist service, and then a pentecostal megachurch.

While we’re being diverse and inclusive, why not be diverse and inclusive?

[tisket]

and the boys wound up prostrate on the floor

and the girls were . . . ?

[DBrow]

Saying a certain phrase out loud with witnesses makes one a Muslim, the first of the five pillars. The second is prayer.

So saying the phrase out loud during prayer makes you Muslim, the simplest religious conversion currently on Earth, no communion, baptism, testimony or testifying.

So what did these kids say when praying with the Muslims at the rabat (lets not call them Mosques)?

[marron]

Synogogue? Did we forget synogogue?

[Corin Stormhands]

C’mon by my church and we’ll let ‘em test out the temperature of the baptismal pool. For scientific purposes, of course.

[Gay State Conservative]

Wellesley (sometimes referred to as “Swellsley”) is a *very* wealthy and *very* “progressive suburb of Boston.I'll wager that none of the parents of the kids involved are bothered in the least by what happened even though they're likely to be atheists.

[workerbee]

although a few of us did make a stab at it.

What a fitting choice of words.

[Moonman62]

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it as long as you teach them that the spread of Islam is based on violence.

[SnakeDoctor]

>> "Relax. Kneel on the ground. And place your forehead on the floor."

SnakeDoc

[nascarnation]

We had a muslim guy at work pass away a few years ago. Some of the co-workers visited the mosque for a prayer service. One of them was a very outspoken and rather racy looking Hispanic woman.

When they told her she had to cover up her plunging neckline and long hair, take off her high heels and stand in the back while the boys prayed, she went off on a rant in Spanish, LOL.

[Opinionated Blowhard]

Russell would be the first one protesting if the school took them to a conservative church.

[kcvl]

Deval Patrick (14376)
9/17/10
Governor
The Deval Patrick Committee

TANNER, RUSSELL 35 HIGHLAND AVE LEXINGTON, MA 024215633 PLANNER RUSSELL P TANNER $250.00

******

Russell Tanner wife
Linda Pinnone practices social work in Burlington, Massachusetts.

[Georgia Girl 2]

“As a Unitarian and an Atheist” I rest my case.

[jnaujok]

and the boys wound up prostrate on the floor

and the girls were . . . ?

Properly wrapped in burqas and head scarves, and traded into a temporary marriage (Nikah mut‘ah) with a 60 year old man in return for a goat and a bowl of opium?

[FrankR]

But if they were taken to a local Protestant church, there would be a liberal uproar.

Take them to strip clubs...growing up to be a prostitute or pervert couldn't be any worse than growing up as a liberal.

[Onelifetogive]

As a Unitarian and an atheist

So, he believes that God is a single entity (not the Trinity) and that God does not exist?

[ApplegateRanch]

Oh, my! I was hoping to detect overplayed sarcasm, rather than be slapped along side the head with plainly stated idiocy.

[KarlInOhio]

and the girls were . . . ?

Kept separate for prayer as is required at a mosque. Only the boys were videoed.

How would this Unitarian/atheist feel about a feidl trip that was supposed to be a tour of a church turning into a group baptism? He probably would have hit caps lock TO UNLEASH HIS OUTRAGE!!!!!!

Has anyone checked to see if the kids repeated the shahadah and thus in some the eyes of some actually became Muslims?