Saturday, November 10, 2012

Curriculum Hateful? Yes. Anything Being Done About It? Not Really.

End of Jewish Plots and Treacheries: Ever since the Prophet’s entry into Madina, the treacherous Jews had vehemently opposed him and his Islamic call, evoking memories of their hostility to the previous Prophet, Jesus Christ, half a millennium ago. The crafty Jews entered into an alliance with the polytheist Quraish in a bid to stamp out Islam. They conspired to kill Prophet Muhammad despite the fact that he was lenient towards them and had treated them kindly, hoping to convince them of Islam’s truth. But eventually as Jewish plots and aggressions increased, he had no choice other than to take up arms against them, in order to protect Islam and the Muslims. At the battle of Khaiber which is famous for Imam Ali’s heroic exploits, the Prophet defeated them ending Jewish intrigues and conspiracies in Arabia.

This is an excerpt from the curriculum of the East End Madrassah in Toronto. To say that such language is disturbing would be to understate how vile it really is. And that this, presumably, has been taught to children?

Let's try this as an experiment:
End of Jewish Plots and Treacheries: Ever since Jesus' entry into Jerusalem , the treacherous Jews had vehemently opposed him and his message, evoking memories of their hostility to the prophet, Isaiah, eight centuries before. The crafty Jews entered into an alliance with the polytheist Romans in a bid to stamp out Christianity. They conspired to kill Jesus despite the fact that he was lenient towards them and had treated them kindly, hoping to convince them of His truth. Eventually as Jewish plots and aggressions increased, he had no choice other than to take up arms against them, in order to protect the Christian community....

It's a little ham-fisted, but if you change a few words, the above excerpt is something that could easily be found on Stormfront or being preached by a Christian Identity "pastor."

The Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre had filed a complaint about the school curriculum this past spring. On Thursday the York Regional Police hate crimes division announced that they will not purse criminal charges against the school, though they have encouraged the administration to examine the curriculum and "advised them to make their teaching materials more reflective of Canadian values." For their part, school administration claimed to have been, "exonerated" and then went on to criticize the investigation against the school without really acknowledging the offensive material or admitting that the investigation was found to have had merit:

“Our teachings embrace and celebrate the Canadian values of tolerance, understanding and harmony,” Aliraza Rajani, president of the Islamic Shia Ithna Asheri Jamaat mosque. He said the mosque had reviewed its teaching materials to ensure that “inappropriate language is removed or revised.”

I would hope so. We'll see. But if, as Rajani claims, the teachings of his school reflect and celebrate tolerance, understanding, and harmony, it begs the question why it took a complaint for the school to remove or revise, "inappropriate language?" Some of our members are friends with teachers and they are, for the most part, know their curriculum inside and out. Something like what is found in the East End Madrassah wouldn't get past them and they sure as hell wouldn't have tolerated it. They themselves would have complained about the inclusion of hate propaganda and wouldn't have to rely on an outside entity to complain about it.

Perhaps the offending material doesn't quite meet the threshold of being criminal in nature (though we have to say it does seem to toe very close to the line)? And, unlike Terry Tremaine, the school's apparent willingness to remove the offending material might be another mitigating factor that has resulted in what is tantamount to a very slight slap on the wrist.

But, for what its worth, this incident has certainly put the school in ARC's sights.

Our main focus here is on the neo-Nazi movement in Canada, however racism, Islamophobia, antisemitism, homophobia, etc are unacceptable so matter what group or individual is perpetuating that garbage.

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