to not want my kid to go to a mosque ...again!

[moaningminnie2]

We live in North Yorkshire and every year the village Cof E school run a whole-school trip to Bradford.First they went to a mosque, then the following year a Gurdwara and then a Hindu temple, and now this year back to a mosque again.They do that in the morning, then have lunch and a run around in a park, and then in the afternoon a quick visit to 'Bombay Stores' and then back home for school pick up. DD and her friends don't want to go ( they went in Y2) and I resent having to pay £13 for each of my 2 kids at the school.Whaty is the point of going to the same place again, and do the school get 'Brownie Points' for doing this sort of RE trip.

Beyond
Neil is joking about the fact that they got slapped by a priest for asking an awkward question.

Mosque can be a wonder of beauty and architecture, peace and serenity. However, I am not able to visit most of them as they sometimes ask you to cover up. And I just do not do that. Nobody can put a scarf on my head and expect me not to rip it off.
Except the rain. Wretched thing that refuses to listen to any of my principles :)

DS would pester the hell out of any denomination. I work for a vicar and have had a few close questionings of him when he's come to work. He's been warned not to torment the vicar now. My OCD brother almost caused our vicars head to explode when dad died with all the "you know how..." questions.

But I suppose it comes with the job, doesn't it?

Gosh, neiljames, that pencil thing sounds just cruel (the others don't sound so great either).

nicename, that sounds great fun. Like a Wodehouse situation. I understand how religion/faith can be a great comfort in bereavement. Even if one is not into the theology, the psychology and prescribed ritual can be a relief to those involved.

Just to people who think religious views does not impact on people in the UK. This chap, Jim Wells is the new health minister in Northern Ireland. He has very strong religious views and I suspect his religious views would inform his position and the public in part of the U.K. in turn. He said he found behaviour of gay pride repugnant, and raped women should be denied abortions. I believe he feels in the strongest terms that abortion is the murder of the unborn child. Now, I know abortion is a complex issue and many people hold strong views for many reasons (not just religious ones) but NI is a very good example of religious convictions influencing the state. Access to abortion is different from the rest of the UK. I can only imagine the new health ministers views on Euthanasia, and I may be wrong.

www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/columnists/jane-graham/we-craved-liberal-successor-to-edwin-poots-alas-we-got-jim-wells-30633482.html

Also, the DUP first minister of NI, Peter Robinson initially supported a pastor whose evangelical church he attended, who said in a sermon that was "Islam is heathen, Islam is satanic, Islam is a doctrine spawned in hell". Robinson came along and said he didn't trust them either, but he would trust them to go down the shops for him and give him the right change. This is the First Minister.

Now, Robinson attended a Muslim centre subsequently after much outcry and said "I apologised face to face, personally, man to man, the way it should be done,"

Love the gender onus.

He apologised if he offended anyone but I don't believe he retracted his comments.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-27604841

Religion does loom big in UK politics (well NI anyway).

Reading this thread vindicates the founding fathers determination on "separation of church and state" ...

I totally agree, LurkingHusband - that's what I'd personally like to see

I don't pretend that acheving it would be free of complications, though

Puzzledandpissedoff I doubt we'll ever see it. "Religion" is a great way to throw your weight around without the inconvenience of elections.

Not going to link to any more after this, apologies if I've done too much already. It's just someone said that religion doesn't influence them through politics in the UK. They forgot Northern Ireland, though.

The content isn't relevant, but the Christian Area Research and Education (CARE) religious organisation seems to have the ear of the the DUP (who else) member of the legislative assembly Maurice Morrow, in relation to the drafting of a legislative bill according to the Belfast Telegraph. Indeed the BT says the christian advocacy group were responsible for much of the drafting of the bill.

"Religion" is a great way to throw your weight around without the inconvenience of elections

A brilliant phrase ... and so very true

and yet America pretty much insists on its leaders being religious, do they not? And the religious right have a phenomenal amount of political power for a 'secular' country.

Whereas no-one here would give a fig what god the PM believes in, if any.

That is true RiverTam. George Bush was asked his favourite book and he replied the bible. I remember thinking at the time that if Tony Blair said that, he'd have been the laughing stock of the country. I look forward to the day an avowed atheist is elected to the White House.

Despite that there is a very clear distinction between church and state. When there was a debate recently about whether some hospitals could refuse birth control as part of obama care, those were private hospitals - not state run. Ditto public education. If you want a religious education for your child, you find a private school and pay for it. If you want a free public education, despite constant yapping and nipping by some communities(mostly in the South) you get a completely secular education where religions are studied only in their social/political/historical context.

I worry about private religious schools though. It is cutting children off from the wider society - especially if its a 'minority' religion. What is their idea is that girls cover up, are segregated from boys at all times and told they can't study science?

I have always thought that state should be secular and religion should be in the background, along with lawyers and philosophers as a guidance/advisors.

I'm beginning to question faith anyway but that's another thread.

I am not allowing my son to go on a mosque visit. I have studied the ideology of this " religion" in some detail and it's ideologies undermine all that I teach in my home. I am a hard working career woman who believes strongly in equality between the sexes and this ideology undermines this. I accept the rights of homosexual people to enter into relationships and this ideology undermines this. It is an ideology which opposes all I hold dear...and is full of antagonism and hatred towards Jews, Christian's and apostates. In particular the mosque that my sons school seeks to visit was the worship place of a home grown terrorist! As such I cannot in good conscience allow my son to attend any "educational" visit to this centre as there is nothing there that I deem to be of any value to his education.

ZOMBIE THREAD!

Maybe you were better off calling your thread, 'to not want my kid to go on the same school trip again.' Rather than highlight it was a mosque. Thread may have taken a whole different turn

Sorry just realised how OlD this thread is. Ignore my comment

Jodup how fucking far back did you go just to bring up a 3yo thread ffs

Z~O~M~B~I~E thread ffs

I certainly would not pay for my children to attend a mosque., or any religious building. Surely there more interesting places to visit

Are no Islamic women "hard working career women" then, jodup?

Why would you search for this? Or want to bring it back up??

Op are you in the north of England. I ask because I here it's very segregated

Howrude - wherever she was, it was 3 years ago

Quite honestly, if my son had been to a place of worship, he wouldn't want to do it again. His current school took him to a church and he's feels himself to be atheist and got nothing out of it. His look of discomfort on a Christingle event was a picture.

I see little value in him visiting places of worship when he's grown up with friends of different cultures. He knows their customs, and they know his, so he's not particularly interested in the religious institutions behind them and his friends are not particilarly interested in visiting religious institutions around his heritage. They get on as kids, and as kids do when thrown together.

He's of multi faith background and dm has,so far failed to get him into a temple and his father cannot convince him to visit a church voluntarily.

I can see that a school encourages children to be aware and respectful of other cultures via religion, but faith schools and self segregated ghettos (both of which are becoming entrenched in the uk), are the real problem and I fail to see how random school trips to faith institutions will help when uk kids in all their various ethnic and faith backgrounds don't mix (depending where you live) on a day to day human level.

Apple ha ha! Hope op has moved to a better where she doesn't have these dilemmas!