Angry parents over "Islam Homework" LOL???

[Aoi Magi]

Yes religion is BS, but cultures are not. There are so many wonderful things that have been taken over and corrupted by religion over time, and we must be careful to not despise those things when we despise religion. Also I don't see the harm in letting the kids know that christianity is not the only one or even a special religion. It is but a pebble on a mountain of BS religions.

[paulpablo]

Ok, my point is that now, maybe more than ever before, it is important that people have some kind of understanding what is going on in the world, and to understand as good as possible what other cultures do and why. To say that Islam is too complicated or to fragmented and therefore kids should be isolated from any information about what it stands for and what its adherents think and do, is madness pure and simple. It's why we always accuse "Americans" (not all of them, obviously, just the stereotype) of being so ignorant, barely knowing that there are other cultures worth speaking of beyond their border, while their government throws bombs on them.

Well first of all I was questioning your reasoning behind the point you made rather than the point itself when I said Islam is fractured and their cultures are different.

Your main point was people should learn about islam and part of your reasoning behind this is that half of the world bases their life on Islam. My point is how could you teach people what Islam is when islamic scholars don't agree what Islam is? You might be able to cover some things without offending any specific sect, just the basics

And I think there's difference between isolating kids from information about Islam and not forcing people to pay via tax to learn about Islam .
And once you decide to force people to pay to learn about Islam then that's being prejudice against all other religions because you you will be isolating children from info about the other religions

[Alex K]

I don't know what to say. Of course the most important religions number-wise should all be covered, to a simple end of learning relevant facts about the world... of humanity. And obviously, you'll tell the most important commonalities of islamic movements and then teach how there are many differences and how they create conflict.

[Aoi Magi]

Umm, christianity is pretty fragmented too, yet people can still get the gist of it, so why not Islam. Besides, if one is to talk about a culture so deeply centered around a core religion, it is damn near impossible to avoid any and all mention of that religion.

[abaris]

Can you make the point without sarcasm to make it more clear so I can rely to your point easier?

Less sarcasm is always difficult when someone argues it's not worthwhile to learn anything that doesn't immediately pay off. Everything you do learn about the world, it's different cultures and history, is actually working towards a much larger benefit. Which is what I always call brains before brawns. It's a political as well as an economical advantage to know who you're dealing with and what makes them tick.

[CapnAwesome]

Kids should be learning about worthwhile topics not crackpot cults like Islam and Christianity.

Yes, but it doesn't hurt to have an informed opinion. They shouldn't learn as in here's something you should subscribe to. But they certainly should learn what makes other cultures tick. Ignorance is one of the main factors that led us to where we are now.

For sure, and everyone does learn about Islam in history or social studies. At no point should you force children to copy a statement of faith. That's creepy.

[Nontheist]

Yes religion is BS, but cultures are not. There are so many wonderful things that have been taken over and corrupted by religion over time, and we must be careful to not despise those things when we despise religion. Also I don't see the harm in letting the kids know that christianity is not the only one or even a special religion. It is but a pebble on a mountain of BS religions.

The question was not about cultures, if it was I would have kept my gob shut.

[Minimalist]

Let them learn important stuff.

[paulpablo]

Can you make the point without sarcasm to make it more clear so I can rely to your point easier?

Less sarcasm is always difficult when someone argues it's not worthwhile to learn anything that doesn't immediately pay off. Everything you do learn about the world, it's different cultures and history, is actually working towards a much larger benefit. Which is what I always call brains before brawns. It's a political as well as an economical advantage to know who you're dealing with and what makes them tick.

I didn't say it's not worthwhile to learn anything that doesn't immediately pay off

[CapnAwesome]

Yes religion is BS, but cultures are not. There are so many wonderful things that have been taken over and corrupted by religion over time, and we must be careful to not despise those things when we despise religion. Also I don't see the harm in letting the kids know that christianity is not the only one or even a special religion. It is but a pebble on a mountain of BS religions.

Yeah, but that's not what was happening at that school. They weren't informing them about other cultures as seems to be the implication, they were making them copy a muslim declaration of faith in Arabic. I'm sure that it was probably intended to teach about caligraphy or whatever, but it seems like a very very poor choice on the part of the educators.