In Cheshire County (United Kingdom), two students in Year 7 (which I believe corresponds to Grade 6 in the US) received a detention for their bad behavior and made all the other children lose their refreshments break.
What did they do that was so horrible?
… two school pupils were punished for refusing to kneel down and pray to Allah during a religious education lesson.
…
Another parent, Karen Williams, said: “I am absolutely furious my daughter was made to take part in it and I don’t find it acceptable. I haven’t got a problem with them teaching my child other religions and a small amount of information doesn’t do any harm.
“But not only did they have to pray, the teacher had gone into the class and made them watch a short film and then said ‘We are now going out to pray to Allah’…
She added: “My child has been forced to pray to Allah in a school lesson.”
The incident is believed to have taken place during a practical demonstration of how Allah is worshipped.
I don’t know if the following comment below the article is true, but it was supposedly made by a student who attends the school:
i’m a pupil at this school and hope that this doesn’t give the school a bad reputation because it has been blown entirely out of proportion! yes i do agree that its wrong but i don’t think that she saw the situation as inflicting a religion on the children because she’s also my teacher and she’s not like that. she is an open-minded CHRISTIAN and to be honest everyone should try things once. also the children didn’t really have to pray they could have just sat in the position the others were in and listened to their iPod. she’d never notice! she’s a fantastic teacher and none of the people in the daily star etc realise just how much she has to do and how many classes she teaches! the only papers you can believe are the independent, guardian and the times so until this story reaches them lets not worry eh?!
Either way, the teacher was taking her lesson too far. How does actually taking part in the Islamic prayer ritual help students better understand the faith?
Can you imagine how this scenario would play out in America?
(via The Invisible Pink Unicorn)
[tags]atheist, atheism[/tags]
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