Islamic schools must shun jihad

Children in Pakistani religious seminaries called madrassahs have been taught to hate Jews, that Jews disobeyed God, that they conspired to kill the prophet Mohammed and that they allied themselves with the pagans of Mecca to overthrow the Islamic regime in Medina. All of this constitutes the accepted historical narrative in most Islamic schools.

It’s little wonder it has made its way into Canada and is being preached in Toronto. But thanks to the vigilance of the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre, which rightly complained about the apparent anti-Semitic curriculum of the Toronto East End Madrassah, it is now being investigated by authorities. The suspect material likens Jews to Nazis. It also mentions putative conspiracies and treachery of the Jews, including a plot to kill the prophet Mohammed.

The administration of the school thought nothing of publicizing such material on its website. That is how insidious and widespread Jew hatred is within fundamentalist Muslim communities. A one-sided view of history persists through the generations. For example, the history component of the curriculum never mentions how egregiously the Jews were treated at that time.

The adult male population of an entire tribe of Jews was executed. Jewish communities were attacked frequently, they were evicted from their homes, their property and money were confiscated and their women and children enslaved by the victorious Muslims. But regrettably it is also part of the accepted narrative that the Jews deserved everything they got. Perhaps that is why the staff at the East End madrassah thought nothing of removing the anti-Semitic content from its history courses.

This blinkered view of history and puritanical understanding of theology forms the bulk of Islamic education in most madrassahs. In stark contrast to such prejudice is the balanced education children receive at Canada’s public schools. The well-rounded education imparted in pubic institutions is based on notions of pluralism and egalitarianism. Our schools teach the supreme value of tolerance which is sadly missing from the East End madrassah curriculum. (...)