E-MAIL THIS LINK
To: 

Islamic school's permit suspended over anti-Jewish curriculum
An Islamic school that had been using teaching materials that slandered Jews and encouraged boys to stay fit for jihad has lost its license to use Toronto District School Board property. The board suspended a permit issued to the Islamic Shia Study Centre, which ran the East End Madrassah from a Toronto high school until an outcry last week over the content of its curriculum booklets.

Ryan Bird, a TDSB spokesman, said, "The Islamic Shia Study Centre will not be able to permit TDSB property until the police investigation is complete and they are able to demonstrate that they comply with board policies and procedures. Pending the outcome of the police investigation, we are willing to meet with the permit holder to discuss TDSB policies and procedures. As soon as we became aware of this complaint, we started to review the permit and the information that was available."

In a statement, the school said, "Our curriculum is not intended to promote hatred towards any individual or group of people; rather, the children are taught to respect and value other faiths and beliefs, and to uphold Canada's basic values of decency and tolerance."

But the school's curriculum, which it has now removed from its website, referred to "crafty," "treacherous" Jews and contrasted Islam with "the Jews and the Nazis." The passages were from two books published by Iranian foundations.

The booklets also told children that Islam was the "best" religion, and listed "unclean things," including pigs, dogs and "a person who does not believe in Allah." It said boys should be "healthy and strong" so they would be "ready for jihad whenever the time comes for it."

Girls, on the other hand, were told to limit their involvement in physical activities and to instead engage in pastimes that would prepare them to become mothers and wives.

The York Region Police hate crimes unit launched an investigation after receiving a complaint from the Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre. The school apologized and promised to review its materials. The Islamic school had been teaching classes on Sundays at David & Mary Thomson Collegiate.

Neither the school principal nor the cleric affiliated with the centre could be reached for comment. Last week, Imam Syed Muhammad Rizvi told reporters the citations in question had been wrongly copied from two websites. But they are actually excerpts from two books published by the Al Balagh Foundation in Tehran and the Mostazafan Foundation of New York, which the FBI alleges are a front organization controlled by the Iranian government.

"As we have said before, the excerpted material at issue should never have been a part of our curriculum," a statement, signed "Principal, East End Madrassah" said. In a video posted online, Imam Rizvi called "absolutely baseless" concerns that school teaching materials were written in Iran.
Posted by: ryuge 2012-05-18
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=344889