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No Compulsion in Religion Alert. "Hindu, Christian students struggle in Arabic in state-run schools," by Amar Guriro for the Daily Times:
KARACHI: Seven-year-old Angela finds it difficult to study Islamiyat at school. "I don't know if I have to study it or not, but it's really difficult to pronounce the Arabic properly," she said.
Angela, one of many children belonging to the Hindu Maheshwari, is a class three student at N. A. Bechar Government Primary School that has been converted into the Syed Mahmood Shah Ghazi Government Primary School in Old Kumbhar Para near Lee Market in Lyari Town.
She is one of thousands of other non-Muslim students, including Hindus and Christians, who are left with no choice but to study Islamic education rather than their own religion in state-run educational institutions. A majority of over two million Pakistani Hindus have lived and worked in Sindh for centuries and half a million of them live in Karachi city alone. The Sindh government and the education board of Karachi have failed to implement a separate syllabus in the city's primary and middle schools for minority students.
"Islamiyat" (Islamic studies) is compulsory for all Muslim students in state-run schools but there is no parallel curriculum in other religions. The education board has introduced "Akhlaqiyyat" or Ethics to cater to them but most of the state-run schools in Karachi do not allow non-Muslim students to take it up. In reality, teachers often force these students to sit in Islamiyat classes. This takes place even though no written permission has been acquired from the parents of the child in question.
When Daily Times visited schools in Old Kumbhar Para near Lee Market, Lyari and the Miran Naka area most teachers were unaware that there was a parallel subject to Islamic education. In most of these schools, the non-Muslim students were said to be studying Islamiyat. "What else we can do if the state is encouraging such practices," said Gunesh Maheshwari, a resident of Lee Market. His three children, studying in different classes, are studying Islamiyat rather than ethics or any other parallel religious studies. Aside from the fact that this is confusing for them, they don't do very well in the subject either. "How can a child who has never heard Arabic in his or her life at home suddenly study Islamic education," said Satipal, another resident.
But Abdul Salam Abbasi, the headmaster of N. A. Bechar (Syed Mahmood Shah Ghazi) Government Primary School tells an entirely different story. "Many non-Muslim students who study Islamic education appear to be keen about the subject and they get more marks as compared to the Muslim students," he said.
When asked about any possible solutions, former MNA Dr Khatoo Mal Jewan suggested Hinduism education for Hindu students. "Islam as well as the Constitution of Pakistan fully protects the basic rights of religious minorities and it is the duty of the State to protect their rights," he told Daily Times.
Blaming the parents:
Advisor to Sindh Chief Minister on Minority Affairs, provincial minister, Kishan Chand Parwani, bluntly rejected that such practices exist. "Islamic education is not a compulsory subject for all students, there is an option for non-Muslim students to study ethics but if the students and their parents do not want to avail the option then what can we do?" he said. He said that no school in Karachi forced students to study Islamic education. "I will personally look into the matter if any school has issued a written circular for non-Muslim students to study Islamic education by force."
And if there's no "written circular," no problem?
Posted by Marisol at April 29, 2007 2:22 AM
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Come home, Gunesh. It is going to be very bad in there. For Angela's sake, come home.
Posted by: arjun.sevak![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/nav-commenters.gif)
at April 29, 2007 2:39 AM
What's the problem?
This has been going on in British schools for years under the heading of “cultural awareness” and “valuing diversity”. Of course Muslims are not taught about Christianity as that would be gravely offensive to them.
at April 29, 2007 5:23 AM
There is a lot of 'circular thinking' (lies) rather than written circulars going on by the Chief Minister of Minorities. How badly beaten would little Angela be if she refused to study Islam? I don't even want to think about the consequences for her young, fragile life. For the sleeping, oblivious people in the West, this article is very telling. When Muslims get to be a majority, then headscarves are demanded for ALL women, study of the Koran is demanded for ALL religions, alcohol is forbidden for ALL, not just Muslims who voluntarily give it up. Angela's story becomes everyone's story, the story of forced religion with the threat of violence behind it.
Posted by: maryrose at April 29, 2007 7:09 AM
I anticipate that the (forced) study of islam by these nonmoslem students will be twisted into "proof" that they want to convert, but are being prevented from doing so by their parents, therefore justifying taking them from their families.
Posted by: labrat at April 29, 2007 7:53 AM
Off topic and I’m sorry but please read because I am mad about this and every other Brit should be too.
About a year ago my uncle spent a while chatting to a fellow angler who claimed to be an ex councillor in a town with a large Muslim minority. During the conversation the man claimed that there were five thousand Mosques in this particular town. Of course my uncle was sceptical, but the man explained that you could avoid the Council tax by registering your house as a place of worship. Therefore he was claiming that there was one Mosque for about every six Muslims in the town.
My uncle told me this tale and I set about validating the story. And yes it is possible to register your property as a place of worship. The requirements are a floor plan of the property and a number of signatures from the people who will be worshipping there.
“Under the provision of the Places of Worship Registration Act 1855, a congregation may apply for a building to be certified as a place of worship by applying to the Superintendent Registrar in the district in which the building is situated. This excludes churches or chapels of the Church of England, unless they share a church building with another religious denomination.”
I spent a while trying to get exact numbers from the council involved but was told after being passed from pillar to post for almost a month that no figures are kept relating to the faith for each place of worship. I then sent a letter to The Sun explaining what I had found but never got a reply.
Today I opened a paper and found a story about this exact issue:
‘Daily Star Sunday April 29, 2007.
Mullah’s tax scam.
Prayer Home Loophole.
Spooks fear that al-qaida influenced preachers are exploiting a loophole to set up mini Mosques tax free.
The security services believe some extremist mullahs are abusing laws allowing members of religious communities to avoid council tax if their property is a Place of Worship.’
It goes on:
“Intelligence chiefs say entry is then restricted to a “trusted circle”.
And:
“Security sources now want strict policing of the law to ensure “underground Mosques” don’t become the norm.”
What really pisses me off is the fact that little old ladies are at this moment doing time in prison because they refuse to pay this exorbitant tax that has gone up by 100% since Nu Arbiet came to power. And if the five thousand Mosques claim is true then one in six Muslims in that town are legally avoiding the same tax. Rather than policing to ensure they don’t become a norm, I would suggest that it is already a norm and it as nothing to do with Al Qaeda, but more to do with tax avoidance.
Maybe this issue is so thorny that The Star could only tackle it by linking it to extremists. But to me it is nothing more than authorised tax dodging.
If the claimed ex councillor is correct then this town is losing around five million pounds per annum in lost revenue.
at April 29, 2007 8:14 AM
Mert
This is probably true and in common with everyone else in Britain, council officials are terrified of Muslims as they will almost certainly be accused of racism and Islamophobia if they do anything to challenge it.
But I would think that many, being “registered unemployed” which I'm sure you know is not the same as being actually unemployed, will not pay council tax anyway.
The press are silent for the same reason as the council officials. Two years ago a Sunday Times reporter cited a family who spent the greater part of the year in Bangladesh or Pakistan managing their estates but still drew British unemployment benefit. He was warned off repeating the exercise by the former Home Secretary David Blunkett accused him in Parliament of being “semi fascist”.
This is Nu-Labourspeak for “Watch out or we'll have you!”
at April 29, 2007 8:59 AM
I agree with you about the number of people on benefits that aren’t paying the tax. But as a percentage how many of those are terminally lazy and how many are deserved of the rebate?
In my case I haven’t paid council tax for the last three years because I have been looking after my dad who had Parkinson’s. I left a job that pays a grand a week for the US military for the real pleasure of looking after my dad, in return Nu Arbiet gave me eighty quid a week to live on and I didn’t pay council tax. The alternative was my dad being put in a home. I gave up a lot to look after my dad and I deserved the rebate. Shit how could you pay it on eighty a week?
What I fail to grasp is how a Muslim man who enjoys all the benefits of living in the UK can use a loophole to avoid a tax? It smacks of disloyalty. Even the terminally useless Anglo Saxon's have a family tree that includes at least a few payers to the Crown’s purse.
These alleged tax dodgers trace their loyalties and taxes to foreign countries.
So maybe, just maybe the indigenous Brits can excuse one terminal idiot in the family tree seeing has they have contributed innumerably to Britain over the centuries. But if you’re living here because it is better than where you come from, then I think you’re obliged to chip in and be fair.
While these people are unable to do so i think they are not Brits and should not benefit from the passport.
Posted by: Mert at April 29, 2007 9:45 AM
Pakistani schools?
No, no, no, there must be some mistake!
This is what is happening in California schools and American taxpayers are funding it!
at April 29, 2007 10:54 AM
To be honest I have nothing against honest, hard-working, immigrants (has anyone noticed how expensive cockles have become???)
Posted by: Mert at April 29, 2007 11:11 AM
Mert
The sad reality is where ever you find moslems you will find stagnation adn conflict.
This little story is from a wbsite called Sikhnet.
It is a story about a Sikh temple being demolished by a group of moslems to build a mosque, in the Indian, yes I wrote Indian state of Punjab.The nerve of the pork munchers !!
http://www.sikhnet.com/sikhnet/discussion.nsf/by+topic/A3FC041A5DBB3FBD872572CB007A070A!OpenDocument
http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=233698
Any kindness or humanity by the infidel is taken as a sign of weakness.
Anyway in sunny old Blighty we have labour to thank for the cockiness of moslems, anything for a vote.
Regards
AI
at April 29, 2007 1:28 PM
Again, the crap is ahppening in Karachi, which was up until 1947-48 one of the cradles of Indain culture and civilization. 8 million Hindu Sindhis and millions of other ethnic Sindhis, of various religous backgrounds but all extremely cultured, peaceful and productive, helped make the area a paradise over the centries. Then, the Indian muslims who bitched and moaned that the majority Hindus in India were treating them too harshly, and fooled the world into beleiveing this was true, came in as the Mohajirs and in due time literally wrecked the city, needless to say with the help of the Taliban loving Paki "allies in the war on terror".
I think Musharraf himself is actually a descendent of the mohajirs; who knows what role him and his family and friends had in exiling Sindhi Hindus, persectuing all the other ethnic Sindhis and ruining the Sindh in general. Soemhow I doubt he and his brethren will ever fell the need to apologize for all this.
I just hope the West will be ready to respond appropriately when the ethnic SIndhis decide to become their own state once again and forcible exchange the Pakis and Mohajirs for the return of the Hindus. The bulls**t like this will be a thing of the past.
Posted by: maxwell46&2 at April 29, 2007 2:29 PM
Why are there non Muslims in Pakistan they should come here and make a swap for those who do want Islamic schools in the UK. Substitions anyone?
Posted by: jesusisthelamb at April 29, 2007 2:44 PM
Come home, Gunesh. It is going to be very bad in there. For Angela's sake, come home.
Posted by: arjun.sevak
And India should EXPEL all moslems to Crapistan.
at April 29, 2007 7:22 PM
Non-muslim children are still attending school in Pakistan?
I'd advise their parents to get out ASAP. Black Friday is coming soon and when the hammer comes down the sharia-backers aren't going to be ecumenical ( if you know what I mean )
Get out now while you still have access to your assets and you and your children haven't been physically damaged.
Naseem - you're not Muslim either by the way... not my words... take precautions and stay in Britian while you still can. Forget about paki.
Posted by: A_Plague_on_Both_Houses at April 30, 2007 10:24 AM
...do they allow "home schooling"?...
Posted by: exsgtbrown at April 30, 2007 10:44 AM
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