Learning To Hate In An Islamic School
SPEAKING out is good:
GROWING up in Vancouver, I attended an Islamic school every Saturday. There, I learned that Jews can’t be trusted because they worship “moolah, not Allah”, meaning money, not God. According to my teacher, every last Jew is consumed with business.
But looking around my neighbourhood, I noticed that most of the new business signs featured Asian languages: Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Punjabi and plenty of Urdu. Not Hebrew, Urdu, which is spoken throughout Pakistan.
That reality check made me ask: What if my religious school isn’t educating me? What if it’s indoctrinating me?
I’m reminded of this question thanks to the news that Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses and 10 other works of fiction, will be knighted by the Queen.
On Monday, Pakistan’s religious affairs minister said that because Rushdie had blasphemed Islam with provocative literature, it was understandable that angry Muslims would commit suicide bombings over his knighthood…
I’m offended that every year, there are more women killed in Pakistan for allegedly violating their family’s honour than there are detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
Posted: 21st, June 2007 | In: Reviews Comments (2) | TrackBack | Permalink
