Muslim parents in dispute with Jewish school over pro-Israel politics

This would rightly be called racism if it happened the other way around.

If you are unhappy with Jewish kids celebrating the foundation of Israel then perhaps don’t send your kids to a school that is named after King David.

I know someone who has kids in a Catholic school. There has been an issue the last year with Muslim parents not allowing their children to be involved in RE lessons, religious celebrations such as Easter and Christmas or take part in activities such as assembly because they say a prayer and sing hymns, they also have to leave the room during the morning prayer. If you have been to a Christian school you will know that everyday is filled with religion.

Sounds to me like an excellent excuse for all religion to be abolished from all schools if different religions are gonna cry when something doesn’t go the way they want it to

Oh look, faith schools turn out to be divisive in a multi-faith society. Who knew that back when Blair was pushing the idea?

Everyone with sense.

If we’re going to allow religious schools this is going to happen. Every religion has politics at its heart however much it pretends to somehow transcend human affairs, they are human institutions.

Israel has a central conceptual place in Jewish religious thought. It isn’t surprising that there’s a minor holiday connected to Israel’s national day.

If there’s going to be Jewish schools there’s going to be this. The parents aren’t necessarily bigoted for being upset and the school isn’t wrong to celebrate Jewish holidays.

We have several ways of sharing this society but they all require us to want to.

Secular only schools? Faith schools but accept that some of the bits of the schools’ faith might be uncomfortable for pupils who don’t share it? Limits on which bits of a faith can be celebrated? Changing schools to find one with the faith you prefer?

All good options, all capable of eroding community cohesion, all possible to practice without discord.

If we could just stop being dicks about it.

>Shamaila Kauser, who has decided to move her child out of the school in protest had this to say.

>“As a long standing parent who trekked for miles to bring my children to what I believed is an orthodox Jewish school with Jewish values that I cherished, each year I become more and more dissatisfied with the changing ethos of the school who have now stated that they are a Zionist school and parents don’t have a say in this. 

Shamaila is a name of Arabic origin, so presumably a Muslim. She decided to send her kids to a Jewish school and went out of her way to do so.

How has a Jewish school allowed 80% of its students to become Muslims? It’s clearly unsustainable and something was bound to flare up every few years at the best of times. You wouldn’t be surprised is one of the pupils decided to bomb it.

Where’s the same energy here as the other “religion has no place in schools” threads? Hmmmm.

“My idpol is different to yours and I don’t like it”

As it happens, I don’t think it’s really appropriate to have schools celebrating foreign countries as a part of their ethos. I have no interest in what flags they appreciate the most, it doesn’t belong in schools unless they match the country it is located in.

All of this could be avoided by schools being secular and identity politics being kept out. Any conflict, if it needs discussing, should be taught in a balanced way.

How about we all just grow up and get rid of religious schools?

Religious schools of all kind should be switched to be secular.

I’d take anything reported by ‘5 Pillars’ with a big pinch of salt. However, stuff like this just reaffirms my belief that all schools should be secular – whether those schools are state or public.