Learning about other's beliefs

I remember once a Muslim boy asked if he could bring his prayer mat into school to show his classmates. What interested them most was the inbuilt compass to help locate Mecca, as the worshipper has to face his mat that way

That sort of sharing thing is fine, but any half decent RE teacher should be able to instruct kids in the basic tenets of major religions, which is all they need. Anyone who is interested in finding out more for themselves is perfectly free to do so in their own time.

Sorry bags I forgot about the ruling that school assemblies should be primarily Christian. Is that still the rule? I agree about the difference between religious observance and religious education and certainly disapprove of indoctrination.

I studied Islam and it is a peaceful religion but is open to interpretation.Very few Imans are radical and i am sure the HT will have done her homework and will during the remaining school year will invite leaders of other religions to give a talk to the children.
It is your sons decision but i think he is being very short sighted.

Thank you all for your comments.
I am still unhappy about their decision but it is not for me to judge them on how they bring up their children- although I have told him that I feel he is very wrong to make the children feel different.
They know why they are missing school that day but I don't think they really understand.Their older brother is at secondary school & does religious understanding lessons or something like that so was very sanguine about the whole thing.
Interestingly my sons went to a C of E school- which was local village school at the time. My other son's children go to C of E village school too.
I worked with a few Muslim women in various companies- in those days you never saw a hijab & they all wore western clothes & were just perfectly normal people & we got on well. We discussed arranged marriages etc. over the coffee machine & although some had had them they were of the opinion that their parents would only choose a loving partner for the who would look after them. I told my son all this.
I can't do any more so I will just let it go now & see what happens when children go back the next day.
It has saddens me to be honest- I thought I had brought him up to be more tolerant.
.

Schools should not be an arena for the promotion if imaginary friends, of any variety. The sooner we get rid of religions world wide the sooner we may see peace..........

'If I want my child to know the Goddess then I will show her' was always my reply to such things.............

Radicalan, how would you get rid of religion? Bann it? They tried that in Russia

I think the first step towards peace between people must be understanding. It is so important to be tolerant and listen, you then then form your own educated opinions. Children do need to understand that there are people with different opinions to theirs and different cultures. I think the Oman is doing a good thing and the parents should let their children listen and then discuss at home what they think with their parents. Close mindedness does not help anything.

Canbia, i totally agree but that oly works if its a 2 way street

Just hope the school has invited a local Hindu, Buddhist and maybe a Druid. Maybe you could ring the school and ask them....

I firmly believe that the more we know and understand about other people's religions and customs the better. My WI have just organised visits to a mosque, a Buddhist temple and a Sikh temple, these visits were hugely popular showing people are keen to find out what makes others tick. The Muslim clerics we spoke to were deeply ashamed of what was being done in their name by extremists and were very keen to tell us so. I can't think this talk would be any different, but the parents have the last say I guess

Personally I think that any discussion with primary school children regarding imaginary friends is unnecessary.

I have found some atheists to be the most intolerant of people

I think that children should be taught about the different religions as they are so much a part of many people's beliefs, but I do object to any kind of religious (as I see it) indoctrination. Children should also be taught that many people go through life with happily, with a caring attitude towards others, without holding any religious beliefs. My DGC attend a lovely school which is, in my opinion, extremely religious, but they love the school and their teachers and are getting an excellent education so of course I don't say anything to their parents. The main thing for me is that they are very happy there.

I was about to post the same Disgruntled!
As well as, of course, a C of E vicar, a RC priest, a Rabbi, a Zoroastrianist priest etc etc. if the school intends to be fair to all.
There are so many there would hardly be time for any maths, language teaching etc.

This used to be called Comparative Religion when my DC were at secondary school taught in a fair and non-commital way.

Craftycat I think your Son and Dil children are being very unreasonable. What ever one ideas on religion it is important to learn about other's views. In terms of being generally informed and and the hundreds of years of historical context that have shaped our country.
Get the school to get all sorts of other religious ministers in as well.
I was brought up a Methodist. Catholicism is to me is a strange religion. Add to that born again fundamental Christians who believe in Creation theory we have some religious people with weird ideas.

Let them listen and learn. Given the circumstances of where you say they live It sounds highly unlikely that anyone is trying to influence them to convert.

There are some very odd bods in all religions a very small percentage become extreme. There is far more to the ISIS problem than just their appalling fundamentalist interpretation of the Koran.
A lot of the poitical instability of the middle east was created in WW1 By British(and French) Imperialism. I am not excusing anyone over this mess and hatred but we helped to create it.

I personally don't think any religion should be discussed/taught in school. Whatever religion you talk about it is only a belief but if there is a decent way to live attached to these religions then teach those.

My children had talks about different religions. I'm sure the imman will welcome questions. I remember my son being rather concerned about Jewish cats not being able to mix meat and milk.
The rabbi assured him that it only applies if the cats are converts

-Separation of the sexes at public meetings, and purdah
-FGM
-Arranged marriage
-Forced marriage
-Shariah courts which are run by (exclusively)men,favour men and keep women from accessing their equal rights in the real courts
-Islamic code which values men as more valuable than women
-the enforced covering of the head or/and the whole body (which constitutes a form of torture)
-cousin marriage which engenders disabled children

Islam, even in its most benign form, is a creed which is inherently misogynistic. It is not a good idea to let a religious speaker indoctrinate innocent children with the more anodyne aspects of a value system which also has such deleterious aspects.

To be honest, while years ago I would have said that it was probably a good idea to have a religous slant to education in order to inculcate morals and manners I now think that secularisn and rationality are the way to go as religion has become so problematic.

Hello everyone.
The UK today is made up of a very diverse population of people of faith and people of no faith. All faiths are acceptable, providing the people practising them, do no harm to anyone else. It is very sad when a tiny minority of violent and abusive people, claiming to be members of a particular faith group, end up, through our sensationalist media coverage in the UK, painting genuine people of that faith group, as people who abuse or hate or commit violent crimes.

It is really important that we all have the opportunity to learn genuine practices of many different faith groups, we do not have to adopt any of them, however, respect of the diversity of our community is really important.
I recall the "Thought for the Day." Many years ago, from
Indarjit Singh, When he and his brothers were at school in the UK. They heard that Roman Catholic children did not have to attend morning assembly, they thought this would be a great wheeze, and asked their parents if they could also be excused as they were Sikh. Their parents said that it was very important that they learn about other faiths at any and every opportunity, and that they supported people of those faiths in practising them, they were not let off morning assembly!
It feels to me that children need to have the opportunity to be as open-minded as they were when they were born, and not begin to practice any kind of discrimination against any thought form, as long as that thought form does not harm people in any way.

I agree a poor move on your son's behalf sounds like a knee jerk reaction, an anti Muslim feeling revved up by the modern press but as you say you can really have no say in it what a sad sad world.
I am not religious but find the knowledge of other religions rituals and meanings the only way you can have the remotest understanding of others Having lived with a Muslim for eight years I can assure you I was neither treated badly as a woman nor was I ever asked to attend or even discuss religion he had his own way of praying when needed and I was as I was religion played no part in our relationship

Five of my grandkids attend a RC school although they are baptised CofE and CofI the schools are totally multi faith and they receive lots of interesting facts of other religions and non religions

The ONLY way to ever have world peace is to hear and learn about differences not just religion but ways of life, thoughts, ideas and the cultural differences in handling situations... with complete withdrawal you are in a closed bubble of ignorance Sadly your grandkids will be the poorer for it but hopefully they will learn from friends as they go along through life and have a more open mind than your son bless him, he things he's doing right for his children but he's doing it all wrong .....information is the only way forward

Craftycat, how tricky for you, but I am pleased that you did tell your DS and DiL about your misgivings. How on earth are the next generation going to grow up to tolerate and respect other people's religious beliefs/lifestyles without learning about them. By withdrawing their children for the day, your DS and DiL are also showing distrust of and lack of respect for the professionalism of the Headteacher and his staff. What will they do next? Take the children out of school if the Head recruits a gay teacher? Like you I would be terribly disappointed with this unreasonable behavior. I think that religious schools be they Islamic/Catholic/Jewish or whatever should not be permitted, and certainly not funded by the taxpayer. I went to a school with a very high percentage of Jewish pupils; we all rubbed along fine, and those studying for their Barmitzvah attended classes out of school time. We learned about the beliefs of our mutual religions and nobody was indoctrinated or converted as far as I am aware.

What I would want to know is, will there be other talks from leaders of Sikh, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish communities? If so, it's a balanced programme.

If not, I don't think I'd be happy at an apparently official bias towards, or apparent desire to favour one particular religion.

My son(now 25) was taught about all religions by his religious studies teacher. Didn't need an iman coming in. It's all part of this creeping political correctness which is ruining our society.

I don't approve of indoctrination, but unless we can discover what other people believe (and why), we can't hope to understand them. Christianity, Islam and Judaism all come from the same source and I get really angry that their believers can't learn to appreciate that they should be on the same wavelength but suggest that those who complain about Islamic treatment of women look at Judaic/Christian traditions. So glad that I subscribe to a faith which celebrates balance (Yin/yang, Male/female etc) and accepts all faiths as part of a universal truth. What concerns me most about your GC is that they won't have an opportunity to hear from the horse's mouth what it's really all about - most Imams are great guys with a highly responsible attitude to their own and other faiths.