One day’s understanding of one of the major religions of the world doesn’t seem out of line. Being educated means knowing something about the world.

First of all, LGM, if this were a case about Christianity, you’d be having seizures.

So can I arrange to have a Catholic priest come and speak at the high school in your area to talk about the abuse scandal and how the media mishandles it?

Will you and the ACLU tolerate that?

It is perfectly legitimate to question how Muslims can be Americans when they profess a faith that holds America to be Satan, whose government should be overthrown by jihad and a Sharia government substituted. If Muslims are our peaceful neighbors, why does every mosque feature Wahhabi hate literature? Why do mosques continue to produce new terror plots? Why haven’t American Muslims publicly condemned these Islamic attacks on America and taken a a public position rejecting them?

The list of pointed questions for Muslims in America is long. I am little impressed by Muslim proclivity to run away from debate about their faith, to only forward their opinions in forums where they can have a monologue, and to endlessly cry racism and Islamaphobia when challenged. Muslims are not behaving in good faith in America either by their actions nor their dialogue.

On June 2nd, 2008 at 1:55 pm, Silkyinfamous said:

I am going to contact the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston and ask them to request to speak at Friendswood School. If they get denied, then that settles the truth we all know. Here is the contact email for Special Youth Services: mballow@archgh.org

Superintendent of FISD:
Superintendent of Schools
Trish Hanks thanks@fisdk12.net

Excellent idea! It will tell you two things: 1) if the Friendswood School is evenhanded about this, and 2) if the ACLU is anti religion, or just anti Christianity.

Of course, if the ACLU does nothing, then that tells you even more.

I concur. “Allah is the only true god.” Replace Allah with Jesus Christ and there would have been a firestorm.

Public schools have bigger fish to fry than making certain that children have a well-rounded understanding of world religions. With below average scholastic test scores, one would think the focus would be on the fundamentals of reading, writing and arithmetic.

Who said they didn’t want their children to understand the fundamentals of any religion? The problem here is that this “religion” is being taught to children by an organization with terrorist ties to Hamas, it isn’t a part of curriculum and the school administrators sneakily brought CAIR in for the “lesson”.

30, you’re absolutely right!

For this to have been a relevant lesson it should have been explained in the first of the year syllabus – provided to all students and their parents, written out in the lesson plan with clearly stated goals and objectives (measurable according to Texas Core Content guidelines and in accordance with the Program of Studies), and taught impartially by school personnel – not a biased guest speaker/s!

What really gets me is that the guest speakers went beyond merely providing the students with an introductory overview of Islam but, instead, immersed the kids with an in-depth study that was tantamount to proselytization!

This incident in Texas is serious, as it has implications affecting students across the country, and should be closely scrutinized until an agreeable resolution is reached in dealing with the presentation of world religions in the classroom as well as who should be allowed to provide such instruction.

Why are you bringing sense and logic to this debate? This is about Islam which many fear as the single biggest threat to their lives.

Please, think of the children!

Jack Chick told me they worship a Sun God in his little cartoon books and by golly I believe it!

You’re amused that there have been 11181 terrorist attacks since 9/11, that’s funny to you?

I genuinely don’t understand why people wouldn’t want their children to understand the fundamentals of any religion.

Why are you bringing sense and logic to this debate? This is about Islam which many fear as the single biggest threat to their lives.

Please, think of the children!

Jack Chick told me they worship a Sun God in his little cartoon books and by golly I believe it!

(19) Culture. The student understands the history and relevance of major religious and philosophical traditions. The student is expected to:
(A) compare the historical origins, central ideas, and the spread of major religious and philosophical traditions including Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism

However, there are some major problems here, from my viewpoint as a Texas public school Social Studies teacher.

1. Students at this school are 7-8 graders. They are taking Texas History and American History through 1877, respectively. I have no idea what relevance a study of religion has to this required curriculum.

2. The law is also clear that parents have the right to remove their student from a class that conflicts with their moral or religious views. (Texas Education Code 26.010) Since the parents weren’t informed, they didn’t have the ability to opt out.

I agree, that things should be more balanced. But if we really were to make it fair, we’d have to teach things more rounded.

I’m honestly not trying to start a fight here — but I genuinely don’t understand why people wouldn’t want their children to understand the fundamentals of any religion. In high school, I remember taking a class on World History, and a large section of it involved surveys of religions throughout the world. It seems worthwhile to me for any child to learn the tenets of EVERY religion — Christianity included; knowledge is never a bad thing.

One of my good friends is of Pakistani descent, from a strong Muslim background, and she’s a wonderful person. The idea that Islam=evil simply isn’t true. People are people.

There is a rightful outrage in Friendswood, Texas, about a local school’s giving its students Islamic training by representatives of CAIR, the unindicted co-conspirator in terrorism (Hat tip: The Hot Joints, whose blogmaster is from the town, and Mic….