Tuesday - December 02, 2008

Muslim prayer rooms should be opened in Catholic schools, say church leaders.  Huh? Say what?

Tempted to say so what. Not my church.  I have a feeling that it isn’t the church of many Catholics anymore either.
Can not say that and believe it however.  It’s bothersome on a level I’m not sure I understand.  Actually, it seems really crazy. It’s like one more backward bending appeasement to a group that will be happy to see you dead. 

According to another newspaper this morning, these plans include also making prayer rooms available for Hindus and Jews as well.
Nice to see the church has so much money to throw around in these financially hard times. 

Muslim prayer rooms should be opened in Catholic schools, say church leaders

By Simon Caldwell
Last updated at 11:44 AM on 02nd December 2008

Muslim prayer rooms should be opened in every Roman Catholic school, Church leaders have said.

The Catholic bishops of England and Wales also want special toilet facilities in schools to be adapted for Islamic cleaning rituals.

Their demands will shock both Catholic parents and the Government because they go way beyond the legal requirements on catering for the rights and needs of religious minorities.

But the bishops are keen to answer critics who say religious schools sow division - and to show that they are leading the way in building bridges between people of different faiths.

The bishops acknowledge in a new document proposing the measures that 30 per cent of pupils attending Catholic schools hold a non-Christian faith.

“If practicable, a room (or rooms) might be made available for the use of pupils and staff from other faiths for prayer,” the bishops said in the document, Catholic Schools, Children of Other Faiths and Community Cohesion.

“Existing toilet facilities might be adapted to accommodate individual ritual cleansing which is sometimes part of religious lifestyle and worship,” they said.

“If such space is not available on a permanent or regular basis, extra efforts might be made to address such need for major religious festivals.”

The Islamic cleansing ritual, called “Wudhu”, is carried out by Muslims before they pray.

Islam teaches that Muslims are unfit for prayer if they have not performed Wudhu after breaking wind or using the toilet.

Wudhu involves washing the face, hands, arms and feet three times each, gargling the mouth three times and washing the neck and inside the nose and ears. Some Muslims also wash their private parts.

Catholic schools would need to install bidets, foot spas and hoses to facilitate such extensive cleansing rituals, Muslims say.

The document has been published by the Catholic Education Service, an agency of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.

But it has been personally approved by Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Birmingham and the favourite to succeed Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor next year as the leader of the country’s 4.3 million Catholics.

It will inevitably lead to accusations that the Catholic Church is ready to cave in to the Government’s agenda and some Catholics have questioned the wisdom of the policies as well as the cost.

Daphne McLeod, a former Catholic head teacher from south London, said it would be “terribly expensive” for the country’s 2,300 Catholic primary and secondary schools to provide ritual cleansing facilities.

She said: “If Muslim parents choose a Catholic school then they accept that it is going to be a Catholic school and there will not be facilities for ritual cleansing and prayer rooms.

“They do their ritual cleansing before they go to a mosque, but they are not going to a mosque.

“I don’t think the bishops should go looking for problems. Where will it stop?”

(wanna guess?)

But Majid Khatme, a Muslim who sent his children to a London Catholic school, said he was delighted by the gesture.

“It is very kind of the bishops if they give this facility for Muslims to pray,” he said.

“I would love to send a letter of thanks to the bishops, really. If they do this all Muslims in Britain will be thankful to the Catholic Church to have facilities to pray. It is very, very encouraging.”

Archbishop Nichols, the chairman of the bishops’ Department for Education and Formation, said in his foreword to the document that inter-faith dialogue has become increasingly important to the Church “as the presence of other faith communities grows and becomes more evident in our society”.

He said that the publication was being “offered to our schools in the hope that the good work already being done in them for children and young people of other faiths can be further strengthened and so that the lives of all our pupils, students and staff can be enriched”.

The document also urges head teachers to “keep under review” all policies which touched on other religions, including school uniform, dietary needs and the time-tabling of events.

Laura McCann, spokeswoman for the Catholic Education Service, said it would be a matter for the governing body of each school to decide whether to adopt the recommendations.

“It would depend on the resources that they have and also other factors such as the numbers of non-Catholic pupils attending the school,” she said.

CATHOLICS

Posted by peiper     on 12/02/2008 at 08:27 AM   
Filed Under: • Insanity • Stoopid-People • UK •  
• Comments (6) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

DISCLAIMER

THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.

Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

THE INFORMATION AND OTHER CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE DESIGNED TO COMPLY WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS WEBSITE SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL PARTIES IRREVOCABLY SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE AMERICAN COURTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPLICABLE IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, THEN THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ACCESSED BY PERSONS FROM THAT COUNTRY AND ANY PERSONS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO SUCH LAWS SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO USE OUR SERVICES UNLESS THEY CAN SATISFY US THAT SUCH USE WOULD BE LAWFUL.

Copyright © 2004-2015 Domain Owner