(Hmm, I wonder at what point they teach about clitorectomies, child-brides, and honor killings. Does this mean they also take kids to a Christian church and Jewish synagogue? Silly question, I know. If they did, the ACLU would certainly put a stop to that!)
February 21, 2010
Most
American schoolchildren learn about Islam in a social studies
classroom. But at the Friends School in Baltimore, eighth-graders make
their own mini-pilgrimage every year, to the Islamic Center in
Washington, D.C.
As their bus rattles along the highway south to
Washington, most of the kids are busy making up songs about each other.
But 12-year-old Julia Potter is counting off the Five Pillars of Islam
on her fingers: charity, prayer, fasting, profession of faith, and the
pilgrimage to Mecca.
These kids are well-versed in the basics of
Islam and more: In class, they learn about Judaism, Hinduism and
Christianity; about prophets, taboos and holy laws. And every year,
eighth-graders visit the Islamic Center — though every year, according
to teacher Deloris Jones, they get there late. "There's absolutely
nothing over the years I have been able to do to keep this thing on
time," Jones says.
Inside the mosque, boys sit on the left and
girls on the right, the girls' heads covered with colorful scarves.
Imam Abassie Jarrkoroma leads a question-and-answer session, and this
separation of the sexes is one of the first topics to come up.
"The
traditional way when we pray, the men would be in the front, the
children in the middle and the women in the back," he tells the
children. "This is not unique to Islam. It has come down through the
Judaic and Christian faith."
Next on the agenda is a stop at the
Saudi Arabian Embassy, where Tarik Allagany shows the kids a video
about his country. They have pointed questions for Allagany: Is Islam
the only religion in Saudi Arabia? And what about the role of women in
Saudi society? Allagany's answers are long, eloquent and somewhat
evasive.
Jones says that afterward, she and her students will
talk about "what the truth possibly really is, and how he
diplomatically answered the question."
But despite those issues,
Jones and her colleagues will keep bringing their eighth-graders here;
they say it's the next best thing to being in the Middle East.
Nora --
Young supporters of the Islamic Jihad movement march
during a rally in Gaza City, 10 March 2010, showing solidarity for the Al-Aqsa
mosque in Jerusalem. (EPA)
as canceled after the repeated delays.
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