To be angry that parents won't allow their children to go on school visit to local mosque?

[ptangyangkipperbang]

DS2 is going on a school trip to the local mosque. However, the school nearly cancelled it because so many parents have refused to let their children go. I have only spoken to one parent who won't allow her child to go but she said "I'm not racist but...why should they visit a mosque when we daren't get a plane or go to a shopping centre because of that lot". Not racist .

in a word, no.

We had exactly the same problem. We were asked to make a voluntary donation for the cost of the coach and told that if there was not enough money, the trip would be cancelled. Suprise, suprise, the trip was cancelled because they didn't have enough money. I seem to remember that it was only about £4 too and since every single child in that year is now going on a £245 school holiday and I can only assume at lot of people felt the same as your parents. Very poor imho.

Yes, speedymama, I do.

I agree Donnie. I have heard others use that argument though and incidences like this add fuel to their arguments.

Message withdrawn

speedymama - whilst I think it's a shame that these parents have behaved in this way, I wouldn't ban faith schools.

Speedymama - DS1 attends a faith school and they have visited a mosque and hindu temple.

"Do you think that faith schools should be banned because they appear to perpetutate division, mistrust and lack of understanding and are a means for parents to segregate their children from others who do not follow their beliefs?"

if public/state funded yes if they exclude those of other religions.
if private,hell no.it's your own money and a private company you can do whatever you like.
i went to a private catholic school and so will my kids.

Amen, if public/state funded yes if they exclude those of other religions.

I agree with that point.

well I feel sorry for those children then - being excluded from so many activities and denied their right to knowledge.

yes, I agree about the state funding, tbh. But then, this isn't about the school, it's about the parents decision, really.

Doodledootoo

Thanks for that.Thats exactly where i am coming from.I understand your friends views and share them (from the christian angle)

My dd starts a catholic school soon and at an open evening i was suprised by the many murals in the school showing other religous ferstivals.When i was at school (a hundred years ago it was catholic and nothng else. i think thats wrong as we live in a multi cultural society now and we have to live amongst each other and have an understanding of each others beliefs. But i was glad that the school i have chosen for my dd whilst adopting this approach and squashing the ignorance of my youth has the catholic message central to its religous education. I too want to be the one to explain to her about other faiths.

Oh my god @ OP! That's the ugly underbelly all right.

How can be possibly hope for harmonious living when so many people feel that way?

how very sad - they'll miss out on a fascinating trip.
Conversly, ds used to go to school in a very culturally mixed school in West London and lots of the Muslim parents used to refuse to let the children take part in the Christmas concert (and it wasn't a church school) particularly if it took place in the local church. This school embraced every single festival of all the religions represented too.

I echo Duchess and many others, how will we ever all live together peacefully if we prevent our children from learning about others cultures and religions. What short-sighted parents.

We are a Christian family, but that doesnt mean I'll discourage my DC's for findging out about other families faiths.

I am sure the school arranged the trip to pave the way for future generations of understanding, tolerance and peace.

I think this is very silly. I think DS has benefitted greatly from his school trips. And it does just encourage ignorance/intolerance etc.

Also I don't get this "I want to be the one to educate about other religions" thing. I send DS to school to be educated. And religion is part of that. Although I was concerned when he came home spouting something about Jews not being very nice. But I sorted that out. And I blame that entirely on the school since he had never even heard of the word Jew prior to this. He is Y1 btw.

I don't think anyone here is more hostile to religion than I am, but I think what we see is the dumber end of racism.
It's not even "smart" bigotry. It seems to me that if you saw moslems are your enemy then learning about their beliefs is a necessary step.
It's a common pattern though. Many parents think they should stop their kids being exposed to "wrong" ideas, and we have a current thread about Schindler's List in schools which shows the same thing.
I feel it is a growing trend, and not a good one.

great shame.

our local mosque (to be fair one of our local mosques as the Emir decrees that no one should have to walk more than 20 metres to a mosque from anywhere in the land yards) opened its doors to expats during Ramadan last year, talked about the belief and practice when asked and invited us to share iftar (the breaking of the fast at around 5pm). It was a lovely gesture, not at all about conversion just understanding.

The imam there travels to Europe a lot and visits churches when he travels as its part of western culture. Nice man. Dreadful coffee.

I can fully understand the point of view that wants to be the one to educate my children about religion. I share it. But I think that the reasons for this particular withdrawal seem to be negative rather than positive.

But in reality, someone can be ticked off about it, but a parent does have that right.

how sad. I wish our lcoal school would do things like that. dd has spent a whole year learning only about christianity and judaism from school and will be visiting two churches this month. she leans more at home than at school about religion, and has actually spoken to the class about hinduism.

How can one religion educate about another religion though - you're not going to teach that all religions are as equally valid as your beliefs are you? It'll be fairly one-sided as you'll want to project your own religion as the best one.

Children should go on these trips IMHO. Ignorance of each other's religions is only playing into the hands of the minority of the population who want us to be at each other's throats.

I don't think this is at all like the Schindler's list thread, it's a completely different issue. Firstly, that thread wasn't about the ideas per se, but about the suitablility of the presentation of the film itself, secondly, I doubt if the parents not wanting their kids to go to a mosque are thinking in terms of their children being exposed to "ideas", wrong or otherwise, I doubt if they have any thought of ideas in their heads at all. It just sounds like a case of either fuckwitted racism or slightly kneejerk panic - maybe they think their kids will either be converted into suicide bombers or be blown up by one on the way out or something.

But yes I think you are probably being a bit unreasonable to be angry about it tbh. Sad, incredulous, jeering, uncomprehending - all reasonable responses. Anger? I'm not sure that helps.

At the nursery DTS attend, all mainstream religious festivals are celebrated and the boys bring home momentos that they have made to mark the occasion. I think that that is wonderful, particularly as the nursery has no religious affiliation.

Although I think kids should visit Mosques, Synagogues, etc, I don't really think you're buying very much "tolerance" that way.
If we look at the most vicious inter-faith fights, like Northern Ireland and Iraq, you have faith groups that understand each other very well. Isaelis and the Palestinians aren't ignorant of each other, quite the reverse.

I suspect kids will simply apply whatever prejudice that they came with. The cleric will seem wise and smart if they approve of his position, or creepy if they don't.

In my view people hate the people they know about, most are too lazy to try and find someone to hate.

bookwormmum, no, of course I'm not going to teach them that all religions are valid etc. That doesn't mean I cannot give them a fair and reasonable understanding of those religions. It's perfectly possible to believe something is true and still give a fair description of something else.