In addition, the students won the right to deliver their own sermons without screening even after some sermons were previously found to be problematic.
Sun, January 15, 2017
Students at Toronto’s Valley Park Middle School pray in the cafeteria every Friday during class hours — boys in front, girls behind them and a barrier, and menstruating girls at the very back to watch but not participate. (Photo: courtesy of John Goddard)
The educational director of Canada’s sixth largest city has decided to allow Muslim students in public schools to give Friday prayer sermons without prior screening of the sermon’s content.
The policy is a reversal of current policy, which was implemented after a number of student-written sermons proved problematic.
In addition, the education director is allowing Muslim students to gather in groups for daily prayers in the schools. At school prayer services, mosque rules apply, meaning genders are segregated and menstruating girls are permitted to watch but not participate.
The ruling applies to public schools in Mississauga (a city adjoining Toronto).
The precedent-setting policy was explained by Education Director Tony Pontes. “The board has always been committed to an inclusive approach in all activities related to religious accommodation,” he said to the Peel District School Board.
The ruling follows four months of lobbying by Muslim student activists, Muslim parents and imams.
To help with the final wording of the new policy, Pontes says he will consult leaders of the National Council of Canadian Muslims (the Canadian branch of CAIR), a group characterized by the spokesperson for the previous Canadian government as “an organization with documented ties to a terrorist organization such as Hamas.”
(The council is suing the spokesperson for that characterization.)
Few voices opposing expanded prayer privileges have been heard. One exception came when anti-Islamist protester Sandra Solomon, an ex-Muslim Palestinian born in Ramallah and raised in Saudi Arabia, disrupted a school board meeting shouting, “I ran away from sharia law, they wanted to kill me. Canadian law, not sharia law!”
Protester Sandra Solomon (Photo: courtesy of John Goddard)
Police escorted her from the building.
In his ruling, Pontes traced the evolution of Muslim religious activities in Peel District schools as follows:
In 2012, the board approved private, individual prayer for Muslim students and no group prayers.
In 2015, the administration discovered that some schools were allowing congregational prayers on Fridays, with students delivering their own sermons. Pontes sought advice.
Lawyers familiar with the Ontario Education Act and the Ontario Human Rights Code recommended continued individual prayer, not group prayer. Six local imams advocated Friday congregational prayer with student-led sermons.
Pontes sided with the imams.
In June 2016, he instituted Friday prayer in all elementary, middle and high schools requesting services, for Grades 6 to 12. But he also stipulated that the six imams would write the sermons, because student sermons had proved to be a problem. “(There were) a few situations where staff had to intervene,” board spokesperson Ryan Reyes said.
After the student sermons were banned, activists protested, calling the policy “discrimination,” “Islamophobia,” and “colonialism,” and in appearances before the school board demanded — for the first time — group daily prayers.
“This policy eradicates the ability for students to take initiative,” said Hamza Azis, Muslim Student Association president at John Fraser Secondary School.
“The board should not be policing religion,” said Shahmir Durrani, the campaign’s overall coordinator, a University of Toronto student and leader of the Muslim Student Federation.
Shahmir Durrani (Photo: courtesy of John Goddard)
“In 1885, the Canadian government… banned a number of Aboriginal ceremonies,” said Maleeha Baig, another University of Toronto student and head of a group called the High School Muslim Students Association. Sermon reviews have “colonial implications,” she said.
Last month, upon her reelection as board chair, Janet McDougald said equity and inclusion remain her highest priorities. “It is the most important work an elected board can do,” she said, “and our community and history will judge us on the measure of our continuous progress.”
In November, McDougald and Pontes convened a closed meeting with Muslim students, parents and imams to hear more. When a Hindu parent asked later why the November meeting was closed, McDougald countered, “It was not a closed meeting — it was a public meeting by invitation.”
Pontes said the final wording of his ruling will include the following elements:
- Students in Grades 6 to 12 can hold communal Friday Prayer in the schools;
- Students can write and deliver their own sermons in English;
- Students can quote from the Quran in Arabic;
- Students can gather for daily prayer in groups but not pray aloud or give sermons;
- As a school activity, Friday prayer will continue to be staff supervised.
- https://www.clarionproject.org/news/muslim-students-gain-group-prayer-rights-canadian-schools
Categories: Canada, The Muslim Times
Prayer is raising up one’s heart and mind in praise and thanks to the Giver of Life and supporter of our peace efforts on the Planet.
Legally, the state has an obligation to respect the rights of parents to ensure that ‘education and teaching(of their children) is in conformity with their own religious and philosophical convictions.’
The schools must satisfy the spiritual, moral, social,and cultural needs of Muslim pupils. State schools with non-Muslim monolingual teachers are not in a position to satisfy their needs and demands. Bilingual Muslim children need state funded Muslim schools with bilingual Muslim teachers as role models during their developmental periods. There is no place for a non-Muslim child or a teacher in a Muslim school.
Bilingual Muslim children need state funded Muslim schools with bilingual Muslim teachers as role models during their developmental period’ otherwise, they would be lost in the Western JUNGLE. Muslim children must develop their cultural, linguistic and spiritual identity before they are exposed to wider society.There is no place for a non-Muslim child or a teacher in a Muslim school. At higher level of education, a Muslim teacher is not a priority.
There are hundreds of state and church schools where Muslim children are in majority. In my opinion, all such schools may be opted out as Muslim Academies.
IA
http://www.londonschoolofislamics.org.uk
That is not the purpose of public schools, to satisfy your Muslim needs…UNLESS they include ALL faiths…now that would be a novel idea!