Schoolboys punished with detention for refusing to kneel in class and pray to Allah

Schoolboys punished with detention for refusing to kneel in class and pray to Allah

www.dailymail.co.uk

Two schoolboys were given detention after refusing to kneel down and 'pray to Allah' during a religious education lesson.
Parents were outraged that the two boys from year seven (11 to 12-year-olds) were punished for not wanting to take part in the practical demonstration of how Allah is worshipped.
They said forcing their children to take part in the exercise at Alsager High School, near Stoke-on-Trent - which included wearing Muslim headgear - was a breach of their human rights.


Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk...

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"Educating children in the beliefs of different faith is part of the diversity curriculum on the basis that knowledge is essential to understanding.

...sounds about right.

"But if Muslims were asked to go to church on Sunday and take Holy Communion there would be war."

Very true. It's great that Western society promotes learning about other religions and cultures, but to force kids to participate in rituals and practices is beyond ridiculous.

As this parent stated, if a Muslim child was forced to take the Eucharist, there would be war. And I don't think it would matter whether the incident took place in Saudi Arabia or New York, Muslims would not stand up for it.

Thoughts?



www.dailymail.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

Education fine.

But to force people to do this is extreme. I too would have refused.

I just realized the date on the article. Sure it could be moved.

ETA: And it's already been posted 2 years ago. My first search didn't bring anything up.

Now we see why the Pilgrims left England for Plymouth Rock.

To worship as they please, not to please the authorities.

Someone should lose their job. Educating kids about a belief system is one thing, forcing them to take part in it, in ANY way, is unacceptable. It is offensive, in the extreme, to force someone to pray to a mythical being, whether or not they believe in it's existence. It's a choice, not a requirement.

Faaaa Laaaa Laaaa Laaaaa Laaaa!

Those infidel school children! How dare they refuse! Jihad!

Keep darn religion away from our classrooms, people are fighting for the wrong things,

I have to admit it's great to teach kids to be tolerant and learn about different beliefs. Still this goes to far! Why would kids want to learn how to worship a God when they can study English, a foreign language and learn math.

this didn't really happen. nice trying to stir s---- up though

reply to post by Portugoal


It's from the Daily Mail, or should I say the Daily Right Wing Paranoid Shut in. I too would have refused to kneel, because I don't believe in God full stop, our feelings on this doesn't make the article true, nothing that paper prints is to be taken seriously even the times of programmes on theTV page, should be questioned. It was the Mail that started the MMR scare to name but one of their Daily fictional accounts of modern Britain... IT WAS IN THE DAILY MAIL, HELLO .

Sweet Baby Jesus and the Orphans will this madness ever end :-D

Daily Mail

Stopped reading there. America has enough partisan winger fear mongering nut jobs, I don't need to listen to Britain's.

Take everything from them with a salt shaker or two.

If my son came home and told me that he received detention for not kneeling and praying to allah (stop capitalizing allah, it does not require nor deserve capitalization) I would go ballistic!!! I dont mean George Carlin Ballistic.. I am talking Mike Tyson Ballistic!

Our schools should be the first place that we seperate church and state. Kids have a hard enough time dealing with their physical differences. The bullying is bad enough without adding another difference to our youth in school.

reply to post by Portugoal


The parents are absolutely right to be up in arms about this. We had religious education when I was at school, and we learned well enough about the faiths we studied without dressing up, and actualy taking part in religious practices in which we had no personal belief.
Theres a good reason why these things should be kept in the text book in school. It is WRONG that a child is not permitted total control over wether or not they perform an act of worship. My soul has belonged to Jesus since I was very young, and if someone had attempted to force me to perform an act of worship which went against my beliefs , I would have created all manner of havock .
Wether Christian, Atheist, Muslim, Pagan or otherwise, a child must not become used to having thier personal spiritual choices messed with by people who are claiming to teach them. If teachers are trying to impose these ridiculous methods on children , then they ought to be told exactly where the line is, and told that if they go over it, they will be fired. Teachers have no right to insist that a person enact a ritual as part of thier education. Any lesson plan which includes this sort of interactivity might well be useful for some members of the class, but for those who do not wish to take part, there must be a viable alternative other than a petty and ridiculous punishment.

Despite this article being fairly dated it would be interesting to know how this all turned out after the years passed. Though speaking solely on the article I think learning about various faiths is great. I'm greatful that in my catholic school we were allowed to and teachers did so with a lot of gusto. I even carried this with me to college. The downside of this is I think the teacher is trying a hands on approach and that is more than likely a no-no to the students who are either A. Very religious or B. Just don't want to confirm; and most certainly to the parents.

I wouldnt believe the sort of rubbish that comes out of the daily mail.
I've lived in three different countries, one of them was England, I dont know anyone who's children are being forced to kneel to any God in school.
I have a few nephews and nieces and they go to school also. They are not kneeling down to anyone.

Originally posted by SpectreDC

Daily Mail

Stopped reading there. America has enough partisan winger fear mongering nut jobs, I don't need to listen to Britain's.

Take everything from them with a salt shaker or two.

edit on 9-11-2010 by SpectreDC because: (no reason given)

Like your style :-)

reply to post by Portugoal


Sounds like an epic fight between two religions. On one hand you have the Muslim religion vying to dominate and control every aspect of the boy's life, and on the other you have the UK government trying to dominate and control every aspect of his life. I suppose the UK government will end up on top but its really irrelevant. Ultimately when you send you child to an indoctrination camp where they learn to extend their childhood by five to fifty five additional years its probably a lot less harmful to pray to Allah.

The more I think about separation of church and state the less sense it really seems to make. The core idea is a good one... stop preachers from strong-arming politicians, and stop politicians from using religion to control people's lives. But when the case is some kind of educational event where the child participates in a meaningless religious ceremony for educational purposes it just plain doesn't matter much. People get all up in arms over something that is actually an incredibly mild event. How much harm could possibly come from reciting some pointless incantation? I imagine the same class may well have a Christian based prayer event as well.

Children sent to government schools should generally have to recite whatever their teacher instructs them to. Exceptions should be made for the sake of common sense. It is nothing but common sense to just let the child off the hook. The teacher should be disciplined for being a crappy teacher, not for any other reason. This is just a minor local matter resulting from a culture clash and mental hang-ups. The boy is right to refuse to say the prayer when he thinks its very bad to do, but he should not be surprised if there are consequences due to his refusal. Just like I may think it would be the worst thing in the world if I didn't wear a tin foil hat to school as my hypothetical religion requires of me but, if they had a policy against such a thing I should expect negative consequences and hope for but not demand common sense for a religious exception.

Religious exceptions should be requested, not demanded. Otherwise you are forcing the rest of the world to accommodate you. If you have religious differences, then expect there may be consequences to that because no everyone may subscribe to your religion. So for example, when there is some meaningless ceremony for educational purposes at school and you think God will strike you down with lighting if you participate, then don't demand the teacher make special exception for you but rather request it and if it is denied oh well because you can't always force others to make all kinds of exceptions to your religious opinions. People get all hung up over religion, and they shouldn't.

reply to post by MystiqueAgent


The thing is, I found the article on a site that dated it yesterday, but I posted the daily mail site and only after posting did I realize the real date. I've looked for a follow-up/update article but can't find one. Seems like they got detention, it was investigated, but it was never reported what came of that investigation.

Originally posted by Resurrectio
If my son came home and told me that he received detention for not kneeling and praying to allah

Allah.