School is asking children to say ‘peace be upon him’ anytime Mohammed is mentioned

[Kitkat189]

My child’s teacher asks the class to always say ‘peace be upon him’ if the prophet Muhammed is mentioned in RE, for example. Used in a sentence it would be something like ‘Muhammad peace be upon him is the founder of Islam’

The teacher explained that this is to show respect to the Muslims in the class.

This is the first time I’ve ever heard of this. Is there an expectation that non Muslims use this expression? Or is it more of a courtesy? I am guessing the latter?

And if it’s the former, should people be compelled to utter this phrase out of respect? To literally wish peace upon a prophet of a religion they don’t belong to? I realise this is not a problem for the majority of people but out of interest, would a devout follower of another religion have objections to this?

(This is year 6, teacher is not Muslim, there is one Muslim in the class whose family are pretty secular, he told the teacher he doesn’t use this expression himself.)

Some "Christians" believe gay people should be executed. You can "respect" that if you want. Me ? Fuck that. And if you try to force that on me, then fuck you too.

Some "Muslims" believe women should not leave the house. Or work. Ditto.

And I hardly need to mention the needless surgical procedure Judiasm insists on. Ditto to that to. That actively disrespects human dignity and bodily autonomy. For what ? A psychopathic supposed supreme being ?

Because we want to encourage a tolerant respectful wider society in the future surely?

I don't think religions should automatically get respect

Some practises are incredibly problematic or worse

You're confusing respecting people with respecting religions.

Religions can not demand respect

What are you on about? Are all of the world's majority religions oppressive?

What's the issue with using a term of respect for a man that's at the centre of a religion that brings billions peace and comfort?

I would use terms of respect to talk about jesus, Sikh gurus or any Hindu gods.

I remember the same when I took RE GCSE 25 years ago. What’s the issue?

Secondary RE teacher here. Children should be told this as I'd put on worksheets etc (pbuh) so they know it, but no, non Muslims do not have to say it and should not be made to say it.

No I’m not. You are twisting what I said.

They shouldn’t have to write it either.

I think when the teacher sets a worksheet that she's made, when she typef about the prophet she adds in "pbuh" in brackets.

I do agree, we had this too. It's not the whole school it's just RE where the whole point of the class is to learn about different religions so I genuinely don't see why it's a problem?

I doubt the RE teacher is forcing anyone to do anything, it's probably how we had it, that we would say it sometimes as that's how it was done in the Muslim religion and we'd learn the same stuff for other religions like the Lords Prayer for Christianity (I'm not raised Christian but didn't mind) and also Judaism and so on.

You're learning about the religions, not participating in them. I would be very cross if my children were required to show reverence to a god they didn't believe in.

I'm not twisting what you said at all!

You said we had to respect religious figures in order to have a tolerant society

That's wrong. We can say to people " I respect your right to hold that belief but I do not respect this belief, its rituals or the figures you hold up for people to idolise and I will not participate. I do not even believe this idol exists"

In other words You do you...but don't expect other people to show any kind of respect or reverence for the people or figures you hold up as idols

Forcing children (or anyone) to chant rituals of worship is not tolerant of THEIR right to freedom from belief.

What would you say if an atheist asked a Muslim to say something that implied the prophet they worship was wrong/bad/didn't exist? You would say it is disrespectful and intolerant to ask them to state something they didn't believe.
It's the same thing in reverse

This was the case when I was in y7 RE lessons 28 years ago.

Precisely. It makes sense that you’d be respectful of the religion you’re learning about at the time.

In RE you can be taught once that " When Muslims state this name they always then state this phrase immediately after"

That's the educational learning

Asking non Muslims to then always state that phrase everytime they make reference to the Muslim idol is compelled worship

See the difference?

Why can’t they equally respect that OP’s son doesn’t believe in a higher being and therefore doesn’t want to say it?

Or do you think religious beliefs inherently trump non religious beliefs?

A religion is just a belief system, its no more or less worthy of respect than other beliefs like political or horoscopes or beliefs about society

No that doesn't make sense at all.
In RE you would be taught the differences between world religions and other belief systems and non beliefs and you would compare and contrast the differences. You would look at the impact on society and communities and critique them where appropriate describing the benefits and flaws.

None of this is "respect" that demands any sort of compliance with the rituals. It's learning from a place of objectivity.

A teacher asking a child to always utter a phrase of worship is not respectful of the child's alternative beliefs

Didn't Muhammad raise and lead an army to go round conquering places (?) anyway so pbuh sounds a bit out of place. Unless it's meaning please stop with the waring?

Completely inappropriate.

TwinklyRoseTurtle · 15/02/2025 17:21

I don’t see the issue, would it be such a problem for you if it was a different religion 🙄

Would be a major issue for me, whatever the religion , because I’m atheist.

I mean you can “you would” as much as you like but that’s not reality.

It’s teaching from a place of understanding.

We were taught it’s not respectful to say or write the name without adding (pbuh) and that’s still the case now.

It’s not a demand of a ritual, but a way to show respect for someone else’s beliefs, which is a large part of RE / RD lessons. It’s not simply learning facts it is learning respect for others and diversity.

It’s been taught for decades and people only kick up a fuss now because Islamophobia has become so socially acceptable (sadly)

How would they show respect for yours in return?