Muslim students enrolling in Catholic schools

  • Thread starter Thread starter Attila1974
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
A

Attila1974

Guest
Would be interested to hear what people think of the below article in todays Globe and Mail, one of Canada’s national newspapers.

Are we giving up to much to accomodate? Would we expect the same from an Islamic school? Is the public misguided in believing that there similarities between the two religions?
**Muslim students enrolling in Catholic schools **

KATE HAMMER
EDUCATION REPORTER— From Tuesday’s Globe and Mail
Published Monday, Sep. 05, 2011 10:53PM EDT
Last updated Tuesday, Sep. 06, 2011 7:10AM EDT

At a time when progressive sex education and gay-rights clubs are becoming an increasing part of the secular curriculum, many devout families in the country’s most populous province are looking for a faith-based approach to learning. In Ontario, however, the only publicly funded faith-based option is Catholic schools – and that’s just fine for some Muslim parents, even if it’s someone else’s faith.

For Seid Oumer, an observant Muslim and a father of four from Ethiopia, Catholic education has a lot going for it. He sells the other Muslim parents on the benefits of uniforms, discipline and the faith-based approach.

Mr. Oumer’s 16-year-old daughter, Daliya, has been attending Catholic religion classes at Cardinal Ambrozic Catholic Secondary School in Brampton, Ont., for two years.

“I find it very interesting, I like getting an idea of how our religions are very similar,” she said…”
Click to expand...
theglobeandmail.com/news/national/muslim-students-enrolling-in-catholic-schools/article2154325/
 
Attila1974 said:
Would be interested to hear what people think of the below article in todays Globe and Mail, one of Canada’s national newspapers.

Are we giving up to much to accomodate? Would we expect the same from an Islamic school? Is the public misguided in believing that there similarities between the two religions?
Click to expand...
Has nothing to do with that, IMO. Muslim families want the best education they can afford, and if that education is to be found in the Catholic schools, then that’s where to go.

My grandson’s parochial school in Brooklyn has a few Muslim children attending there. No problems, they study hard, are good children, and get along with their Catholic classmates.
 
I’ve known a couple Muslim students at my former Catholic high school, and there weren’t any problems where they or their coreligionists were concerned to the best of my knowledge.

Overall I say Muslims attending Catholic schools is a good thing. They get exposure to the best that Western civilization has to offer, and are spared the secularist, relativistic nonsense peddled in society nowadays that they’d face in public schools. These Muslims students will learn that self-professed Christians in the West aren’t all a bunch of sex-crazed, drug-abusing, amoral hedonists, despite what they might see in the media and the movies.
 
I knew a couple Muslim students at my former Catholic high school, and there weren’t any problems where they or their coreligionists were concerned to the best of my knowledge. I’m against excessive accommodation as occurred at the junior high school mentioned in the cited article, but nothing untoward like that took place at the high school I attended.

I say Muslims attending Catholic schools is a good thing. They get exposure to the best that Western civilization has to offer, and are spared the secularist, relativistic nonsense peddled in society nowadays that they’d face in public schools. These Muslims students will learn that self-professed Christians in the West aren’t all a bunch of sex-crazed, drug-abusing, amoral hedonists, despite what they might see in the media and the movies.
 
Attila1974 said:
Would be interested to hear what people think of the below article in todays Globe and Mail, one of Canada’s national newspapers.

Are we giving up to much to accomodate?
Click to expand...
What does the Catholic school in the story give up? I saw no signs that it was giving up anything.
Would we expect the same from an Islamic school?
Click to expand...
The same what? Just allowing people to attend?

But of course, the Golden Rule requires us to treat others we would wish them to treat us, not as we think they would treat us, so the question is irrelevant for a Christian.

It’s perfectly appropriate (as Pope Benedict has done) to call on Muslims to extend to Christians in predominantly Muslim societies the same generous treatment that we (mostly) show to Muslims in Western societies, of course, but not to ration our treatment of Muslims by our perception of how Muslims would treat us.
Is the public misguided in believing that there similarities between the two religions?
Click to expand...
No “misguiding”–there obviously are similarities, and if you don’t think they are then you are misguided. (Indeed, it’s a trivial observation that there are similarities–there are no two things in creation between which there does not exist some similarity.)

Edwin
 
Hello everyone,

I appreciate your comments regarding the article above and I do agree with the sentiment that this is a good thing not only for the separate school system in place here in Ontario but also for the church as a whole.

I’m not certain that many know this, and if I have offended by mentioning this then please accept my humble apologies, but all of the Catholic Secondary Schools here in Ontario no longer require a child to be a true, practicing Catholic or even be the child of a parent who is practicing Catholicism.

As such, the moral fibre which many attribute to Catholic schools isn’t present to the same level or standard which was in place many years ago.

Some Catholics see actions such as the above to be another problem for the Catholic school system in the sense that, with each passing year it seems, we are losing more and more of the Catholic identity within the school system which once enshrined the Catholic faith.

In my personal opinion, having attended both a public and a Catholic school between grades 1-13, I would rather see funding cut from the Catholic school system so that a return to the pure and untainted teachings of the Holy Church is presented to students who would then have to make a decision on faith based on that experience and with that knowledge which was learned.

If I’m wrong about my beliefs, then I would greatly appreciate correction with much thanks.
 
Attila1974 said:
. . . I’m not certain that many know this, and if I have offended by mentioning this then please accept my humble apologies, but all of the Catholic Secondary Schools here in Ontario no longer require a child to be a true, practicing Catholic or even be the child of a parent who is practicing Catholicism.
Click to expand...
I’m only 38, and an American, so I have limited experience. But I’ve never heard of a primary school that only accepted “true, practicing” Catholic students. Most will accept any qualified student, with the understanding that they’ll receive a Catholic education regardless of their personal faith.
Attila1974 said:
As such, the moral fibre which many attribute to Catholic schools isn’t present to the same level or standard which was in place many years ago.
Click to expand...
Without delving into the differences between actual levels and standards, I tend to attribute a perceived weakening of morality with either (1) notsalgia for a time that never really existed, and (2) the increased value placed on individualism, which breeds an acceptance of relative morality.
Attila1974 said:
Some Catholics see actions such as the above to be another problem for the Catholic school system in the sense that, with each passing year it seems, we are losing more and more of the Catholic identity within the school system which once enshrined the Catholic faith.

In my personal opinion, having attended both a public and a Catholic school between grades 1-13, I would rather see funding cut from the Catholic school system so that a return to the pure and untainted teachings of the Holy Church is presented to students who would then have to make a decision on faith based on that experience and with that knowledge which was learned.
Click to expand...
Being an American, the idea of publically funding to any large extent a Catholic education is difficult. But it does occur to me that your approach seeks quality over quantity. And I’m not sure those two concepts must be mutually exclusive.

Pax,
OA
 
What is the issue? Noncatholics have been going to Catholic schools for a long, long time. In fact it seems like the more expensive the Catholic schools become the greater the percentage of non-catholics.
 
And this could be the reason why Catholics schools stopped teaching Catholic Faith?
 
If it gives the Catholic churches the chance to give the Muslim students an excellent education and witness their faith, I see nothing wrong with this.

Good show.
 
To our American friends.The history of our public schools is different than the States.The Catholics originated the school system then to accommodate non Catholics a separate system set up publicly funded.It’s a system that has worked well so why change it.It creates some healthy competition when exam time comes around and the reason it still exists is because the Catholics system gets more bang for the buck.They usually come out ahead on most subjects and send more kids on to Colleges and Uni’s the facts prove it.Any politician who tries to change it takes a bath
 
This reminds me of what I heard on public radio about a Catholic school in Iraque. It was a Jesuit school. They agree to not teach Catholic faith and agreed to teach that Christians and muslims are the same.

Very sad when money rules and God is no longer the center of our Faith.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top