ACT for America has sent me this article and video, which was produced by Americans for Peace and Tolerance, a Boston-based organization of Christians, Jews and Muslims truly committed to inter-faith peace-without bowing to Islamic extremists. It is run by Charles Jacobs, whom I have had the pleasure of meeting. This is an organization worthy of support.
In this article, a local mom in Wellesley, Massachusetts described how she accompanied her child on a school field trip to a Boston mosque (Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center), which has come under considerable suspicion recently. (I have written about this mosque previously.) The bottom line here is that PUBLIC school children (Wellesley Middle School) were subjected to religious indoctrination. Here is the article and video. Watch as the kids are actually led into prayer.
http://www.peaceandtolerance.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=129:school-trip-to-moderate-mosque-inside-video-captures-kids-bowing-to-allah&catid=7:our-statements&Itemid=39
Imagine the outrage had these public school kids been taken to pray at a Christian church. Is there not supposed to be a strict separation of church and state in public schools? This is obviously a violation, and those at the Wellesley Middle School who are responsible should be held accountable.
This is not an isolated case. I have reported on two schools that use textbooks that give a positive and misleading account of Islam. The reason is that Muslim activists have inserted themselves into the school offices that decide on textbooks. This is going on nation-wide.
There is no law in the US against proselytizing, nor should there be. That, however, does not extend into our public school systems. Furthermore, given the history of this particular center's leaders, this is no place school children should be taken in the first place.
* Update: The Investigative Project on Terrorism has just posted an apology from school superintendent Bella Wong:
http://www.investigativeproject.org/2185/field-trip-prayer-prompts-apology
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3 comments:
Mixed bag here. No, public school field trips should not include "trying out" prayer at any religious facility.
Passing off axiomatic references to the "atrocities" of the Muslim conquest is laughable. The conquests of the decrepit, worn-out, oppressive, Byzantine and Persian empires were pretty humane affairs by the common standards of the day. Armies did slaughter large numbers of enemy soldiers of course. What army didn't?
Let's talk about how the Byzantines treated Jews, and why the Jewish population cheerfully cooperated with and aided the Muslim conquest, which restored to them access to Jerusalem.
That silly story that women could vote in Muhammed's umma (nobody voted on much of anything in the world in those days), reminds me of the old Roman Catholic canard that the U.S. Constitution was based on Catholic doctrine. This too shall pass.
I don't much care for any organization with "tolerance" in its name. I've ripped up countless appeals from SPLC to add my name to a "wall of tolerance" (there's an oxymoron for you). I don't get any better vibes about this group.
I think that the video is laying it on a bit thick, but at the same time, I'm pretty much on the same page as you with this. Visiting a mosque is fine as part of a learning experience, but that experience was definitely pushing past the border to proselytizing. It would be fine if the Imam told them at the end something along the lines of: "If you'd like to know more and pray with us sometime, please come back and visit." Having them do it (although it seems like it was voluntary more than mandatory) during the school-sponsored field trip strikes me as inappropriate. I wouldn't approve of it if it were any other religion either.
What do you think would happen if these children were Muslim and they were taught to say the Rosary in a visit to a church or the Shima in a visit to a synagogue?
It wouldn't be pretty I can assure you.
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