Religions In Public Schools....by Jamil Shawwa

I was fortunate enough to exchange some ideas with very distinguished friends on Facebook and I thought to bring my notes regarding religions in public schools into this third and final trio on public education. I believe in the separation between religions and public schools, Religions in public schools cannot be taught because of the diverse- in open societies- background of the students. Religions also are a private matter between the person and God or the persons' faith and whom they worship. Countries at some point must choose if they want to adapt secularism or theocratic form of government. Having a mix will not and does not work. There will always be conflicts between the two. In the United States, religions are not taught in public schools, period. There are countries though with special status as the Vatican and to a certain extend Saudi Arabia that the teaching of the religion is in the core of their existence. In the case of the Vatican, it is clear, as the head of the Catholic Church. In the case of Saudi Arabia, the country really is not a regular country with regular form of government but is fully based on the religion or the alliance between the royal family and the Wahabi sect of Islam. The family runs the country affairs and the Wahabi runs the religious foundation. It is for the Saudis as any other country to decide if they ever have the chance to decide. For the rest of the world, Parents who are interested in teaching their kids religions, any religion, can do that through private education. When students go to higher education, colleges and universities, they can study anything they want if it is their choice. Public schools by definition, is the main, free primary education for all. See the links below. While at school In Gaza and Jerusalem, my heart broke during the religion class every time my colleagues who happen to be Christians would leave the classroom and go to another classroom. This should not happen; no one should ever feel different based on religion, race, color, cultural background, language, gender, etc. Maybe the logistics demanded this situation, but the style and the procedures matter. That practice existed and probably still exists in The Middle East even in private schools. Still, public schools are different, they are usually funded completely by the taxpayers’ money and it is for all. I agree that students from other religions had their religious teaching but the point I want to make is that those who happen to be Christians had to leave the classroom, and not us the Muslims, why? Because they were few students, less than 5% sometimes of the class population. This was humiliating. Now, maybe if we all had to leave that class and go somewhere else, maybe the picture would have been easier to swallow. Again, people will differ about the role of religions in society, I think religious schools can exist and should exist in any society as parallel to the public education. In the United States, you can send your children to any kind of schools as long as it is authorized and licensed by the state. We have here Jewish schools, Christian schools, Muslims, Hindu, etc.


In Cairo University, also, the non-Muslims were required to go through Islamic laws and the Quran teaching concerning the legal system classes because it is part of the legal system. Again, what if a society decides with their 100% free well that they want the religion to be part of the system and that they want the religion to be taught. In that case, religions in law schools for example must be taught to all because it is part of the legal system and has nothing to do with coercing a student to learn something that is not part of their beliefs.

During our Facebook discussion which actually was triggered by a piece of news that came from Egypt stating that there were acts in certain areas of forcing non-Muslims to read and memorize verses of the Quran. I replied stating if that practice exists, forcing nun-Muslims to read and memorize verses of the Quran, then this is a crime by itself in my book and it should immediately be banned and fought by all legal means.



----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Read: http://arabamericanwire.blogspot.com/2010/04/public-education-in-united-state.html
http://arabamericanwire.blogspot.com/2010/04/education-in-arab-world-by-jamil-shawwa.html ...