Thfire.com Everyday news that matters Looks like everything that comes in contact with Islam in US ends in a controversy. A
Wellesley Middle School
field trip in Boston to one of the local mosque has ended in a controversy too.
So how could some educational trip to a mosque get so much attention? Well, some 6th graders observing the prayers decided to join them and imitate them.
I don’t really see whats wrong here. If you go to some weird new place and watch people doing something weird stuff you naturally want to imitate them as a mark of respect or just out of curiosity just to know how it feels.
These kids did just that. To me it looks like they did it for fun. At least they got to learn how an Muslim performs his prayers. Whats wrong with that ??
Apparently it is! Parents who watched the video got furious because their children now understands how a Muslim worships unlike their ignorant parents. As a matter of fact the point of this whole field trip was to learn about other religions.
Now, it has been very clear that the students voluntarily joined the prayers and were not forced or even asked to join.
Yet, people are scared!
The school superintendent apologized to local parents after the video, shot by a parent, was made public. It shows a handful of Wellesley sixth-grade boys kneeling and engaging in the prayer ritual during the May event at the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center.
“They weren’t asked to pray. They weren’t refused from going in … to observe. You could go in and observe and some kids did sit down. There were some boys who sat behind the men and kind of copied them, but it wasn’t like they had to,” said Marijane Tuohy.Flyers alerting the school community to the incident turned up on cars at a back-to-school meeting at the middle school Thursday night.In the flyers, an online group called “Americans for Peace and Tolerance” slammed the school and demanded an investigation into the incident.Some parents were offended by the group’s campaign.”Here’s a group that says ‘Peace and tolerance,’ and what they’re preaching, appears to me, to be hate,” said parent Drew Knowland.
Watch the video at : http://www.thebostonchannel.com/mostpopular/25048253/detail.html
