I don't see anything wrong with it. I've know it to happen in several schools in Montreal as well, where there's an external imam coming for Juma. On the other hand, if they were to make similar accommodations to students of different faiths, I wouldn't be against that either. We also had Zuhr and Juma (on Fridays) in our high school. I don't know if it was pertaining to this incident or not, I also remember reading that if the school did not make this accommodation, they would risk losing a portion of the Muslim students to private/Islamic schools, which they also didn't want.
Besides, this is 3 years old now. It seems someone's just trying to stir up some controversy.
This is the “deal” that we had with our uni when we asked them to give us a room where we could pray. I’ve written about it before in some other thread. They didn’t give us a separate one but allowed us to pray at whatever time at the back of the chapel and installed a sink for us to do wudu in. Having read news stories like this, I was prepared for the worst, expecting a lot of fuss but Alhumdulillah they were so helpful that it makes me teary to this day. It goes both ways - we weren’t fussy either, we know Allah swt will accept our prayers if our niyah is paak, we don’t need a special setting.
It’s not that hard to get along afterall, is it? There he was, a Catholic priest, organising prayer facilities for muslim students. God bless em!
As much as I want Muslim students to have a Jumma Prayer, bringing in Imam is a little over-board.
Btw, its not ONLY happening in this one school. Another school near that (where my son used to go) have a Jumma Namaz arrangement too but they offer Namaz during lunch break. I think one of the student should lead the prayer and prayer should be offered during lunch/snack break. Any sort of public money/time should not be spent on accommodating that because that will be discriminating to other religions.
Personally I think fuss is made just to buildup another controversy.
I can't believe they allow this when they dont allow Christian prayers.
Just to be clear, when we were younger as part of the morning announcements over the central public announcement system, all students were led into the Lord's Prayers and were expected to bow their heads, put their hands together and recite the Lord's Prayer. No one could opt out. That was imposing one faith's religious practice on all students. That prayer has since been banned in schools.
As for the rest, I agree with the posters above that :
1) equal opportunity should be provided to all faiths and there should be a multi-faith prayer/meditation room
2) jummah prayers can/should be read, but it should not be led by an imam from outside the school
As for the timing being after lunch and extending to 40 minutes of lost instruction time - I don't think teachers or the school administration have an obligation to help the students to make up the lost class time. If it's an advanced grades, make that a spare period so the students don't miss class lessons. As harsh as this may be, if the teachers had missing students in all classes because students from all faiths were taking time out to pray/meditate or partake in a religious observance, their class lessons would constantly be interrupted.
I think it depends on the school, I went to a Catholic college where they did sermons and prayed in assemblies although no one was forced to join, we could use the chapel to pray in which there were statues and pictures of Mary and Jesus but because qibla was in the opposite direction we made do.
If there's a high percentage of any religious group in a certain school then why not? Although ultimately it should be the student council's decision as opposed to adults sticking their nose in where it is not required.
If there is a vacant space and times don't clash with lessons (although praying only takes 5 mins and some nice teachers didn't mind if you finished your work early) then what's the harm?
It helps other students learn about lots of new religions, I learnt more about Catholic Christianity in the chapel than in religious education classes :)
ive been following this story for a while. i agree with LC. No need to have an imam do the khutbah, and that too for 40 min.
i think the reason why this whole issue started was because a lot of the students were goign to the masjid to jummah, and many of them dont bother going back to class..some of them didnt even to go jummah in the first place.
and dont even get me started on why the govt funds the catholic school system. ridiculous.
for the people saying to send their kids to islamic school..it aint cheap, and the good ones have a waiting long waiting list.
It goes both ways - we weren’t fussy either, we know Allah swt will accept our prayers if our niyah is paak, we don’t need a special setting.