Friday, December 5, 2008

This can't be correct? Update, protest against Gold Coast school

Muslim school sacks teacher who wanted national anthem

A MUSLIM school has banned the national anthem at assemblies and sacked the teacher who asked for it to be played.

Australian International Islamic College teacher Pravin Chand was sacked last month, four months after his proposal for students to sing Advance Australia Fair was ruled to be against the "Islamic view and ethos".

A memo sent to teachers in July also announced "the singing of the anthem will be put on hold".

Yesterday, the Brisbane school denied it had banned the national anthem at assemblies.
Well, of course they didn't ban the National Anthem. They've been taken out of context, it goes without saying.

More at news.com.au

On the same page at news.com.au, there are links to a story about Noah's Ark....

A QUEENSLAND father of five has taken action in the Anti-Discrimination Commission after his four-year-old daughter was asked to help make a replica of Noah's Ark at the local state school.

Ron Williams, who has five children under the age of 10, is opposed to religious instruction in state schools.

He said he was taking action because he did not believe students should be "exposed to superstitious mumbo-jumbo, presented as fact, in an educational setting", The Australian reports.
more here

I'm in two minds about this story. The children watched a movie and were learning about animals and the sounds they made.

If he's going to get antsy about Noahs Ark, I wonder if he'd get upset about his children being taught that man is destroying the world with AGW, pollution, etc.

Someone should really do something about educating Australians about turning Australia into a tip*. Many years ago I had friends visit from the US and they marvelled at how clean Australia was, how clean the cities were. Not any more. Rubbish seems to be strewn all over the country side and in the cities people just throw their rubbish anywhere.

Take it with you. Put it in the bin. (Just don't look in my passenger-side foot well... mmmm'kay?)

*tip = rubbish dump

Update:

Resident's spokesman Tony Doherty said Muslim schools did not encourage multiculturalism.

"It's segregation, not integration," he said.

"They're not trying to integrate into the rest of society.

"Since we have started protesting against this our churches have been covered in hate-filled graffiti."

He denied it was hypocritical to oppose Muslim and not Christian schools.
Strangely, noone has called for calm amongst Christians after these hate-filled graffiti assaults. more

Pedro, I was NOT an article of the Devil. I was an angel! (A bit like a St Trinians Angel...) See:

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Re: turning cities into a tip... is it any wonder? In Sydney, all the bins have been removed - presumably for various reasons including terrorism concerns. I've walked for blocks carrying an empty drink bottle before finding a bin, and when you do find one, its often overflowing. Of course people are going to toss stuff. Not saying its right, but its an unintended consequence surely.

Try finding a bin in a City rail station. Hah! And people wonder why the trains are full of crap.

Anonymous said...

As soon as I saw that bit about Keysar Trad being a trustee at this school, I LOL'd and bet myself a fiver that the updated news would be ". . . . out of context".
I win the fiver!

Boy on a bike said...

Damn you Pedro, that was my comment!

Skeeter said...

On 9-TV news tonight they had the whole school singing Advance Australia Fair. It was one of the best renditions of it that I had ever heard — a very well-trained bunch with everyone in tune.
Also saw the anti-religion father talking about the evil Noah's Ark picture in his 5-year-old's class.
Somebody has obviously put the fear of God into him.
I wonder if the poor kid is allowed to look at Santa Claus pictures.

kae said...

Ahhh, but Skeets, didja see A Current Affair?

The whole thing is very stinky.

A teacher at the school, who was filmed with the children and it looked like it was filmed at the school, said that when the memo came around saying the National Anthem was not to be sung as it was against the ethos of the school she and two other teachers protested. They'd been teaching the children the National Anthem so that they could sing it.

She said that it's the first time ever this year that the children have sung the National Anthem. She was surprised.

Of course, an pillar of the islamic community said that wasn't true, he'd heard them on many occasions singing the NA. He was asked point blank by the interviewer whether he was lying. He denied it.

I'd like to see that woman I saw on the Liar programme last week analyse the pillar's reply to the question.

Then out trotted Kayser Trodinitt. And he blathered, as per ususal. Poor victims of whatever.

Rednecks, they're all rednecks, the ones who don't want the school on the Gold Coast. Just a small minority.

Shuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuure.

kae said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
kae said...

ooops, ahhh, so good I said it twice

haw (as Paco would say)

Anonymous said...

I'm not a fan of religious schools. In Australia, they have a history of providing education back from the 19C which was commendable. But in the 21C, I'm uncomfortable with mixing education with religion. It allows religion to continue, and I agree with Williams that religion is "superstitious mumbo-jumbo". Sorry if I'm offending anyone here, but that's my right (I did think god given right ... ha!) to say so. Williams will be criticised by religious people sending their children to State schools. And also the media who will milk it. Unfortunately, education and religion are so intertwined, that moves to separate them in State schools and religious schools will be difficult, if not impossible. You cannot ban religion; religion is so bound up in our history and psyche. Let people make their minds up when adults, not impressionable children. I don't think Australia is a very religious country, so why put children through a system to educate, I mean indoctrinate them, into a belief system.

Notwithstanding, there are big differences in religious schools, from non denominational ones to ones called madrassas that come to mind. You cannot lump them all together, some are benign, others hateful.

It’s an interesting subject, but one that people fear to speak out. And I understand why.

Isn’t the saying, never talk about sex, politics or religion? Hey Kae, you talk about politics and religion, what about sex?

Hello Skeeter and Pedro. I'm back in from the cold. Ha!

kae said...

I'll have you know, Mr Stevo, that I went to Methodist Ladies' College. Nyah.

A lady doesn't talk about sex.

Whatchoo wanna know? (Remember, I'm completely out of practise, so I may not remember.)

Anonymous said...

Kae, of course you are a lady. Never had much luck with the methylated spirits, the catholics were easier! What am I saying!!!

You know I went to a church school too. Nearby. The religious teaching was minimal, education was the priority. And so it should be.

There's one thing that I do like is choir music, I find it very uplifting. I was a chorister myself as a kid. But that's no reason to believe in religion.

Love your blog ...

Anonymous said...

Lapsed Mick here, Stevo, and I agree with the minimal religion, best education comment. Didn't take with me too well either, but a certain Jesuit priest taught me how to use a cricket bat as a tiddler which resulted in about 18 years of weekend joy until age and decrepitude mandated retirement as a flanneled fool.
Another taught me how to bang out a chord or two on a guitar which resulted in a lifelong love of making music, (pretty badly, according to the captive audience at Casa Pedro).
Same mob taught me to shoot a rifle, skin a rabbit, table manners, show respect to ladies and my elders, appreciate good literature, respect the law, love my country, eat well, save money, etc etc (you get the message, I'm sure). Much gratitude to the religious oppressors.

Sorry Kae, but back in the day, I think MLC girls were considered agents of the Devil, put on Earth to entice we good Catholic lads into the Pit of Protestantism, and therefore into the last circle of Hell for Eternity.

Rambling a bit here. I blame John Howard. (I miss the old fart)

kae said...

What I learnt at MLC?

Strip-jack poker.
Bawdy songs.
Enough French language to read food labels in New Caledonia.
Enough Bahasa Indonesia to sing the chicken song, say hello, and how are you to Indonesian students (had one visit me today).

mmmmm

You CAN fold up a girl's straw hat and stick it in your briefcase!

Even after it's blocked.

It was a good school, I just didn't appreciate it then. If I'd done my bit and had kids* and they were girls I would like to have sent them to MLC, expensive, but much more than just a school.

*unfortunately things didn't work out that way, not by choice. More like bad choice in blokes. No, make that bloke.

kae said...

Pedro, I was not an article of the Devil.
Look at my angelic visage at the bottom of the post!

Boy on a bike said...

Kae, that is really very, very close to "Basic instinct".

I went to a pretty strongly religious CofE school. They gave it to us in spades, and most of us threw it up. I think out of 120 students that graduated each year, 119 ended up as aethiests. There is only so much "churching-up" that teenagers can take, and we got more than our fill.

We got a stand-in divinity teacher when our Reverend took 3 months leave. The stand in was about 10 times more serious than the Rev was - refused to talk Rugby Union during Divinity class and - horror! - insisted we buy and read bibles.

Took us one month to put him in a mental home.

kae said...

Basic Instinct?

Pfft.

Butter wouldn't melt in my mouth.

Besides, I always wore knickers at that age... it was only about 35 years ago or so.

Anonymous said...

I submit, M'Lud, that the amount of leg displayed in Exhibit 1 is prima facie evidence of satanic intent to corrupt saintly young Catholic boys.

I rest my case.

Skeeter said...

My grandparents were Primitive Methodists and I was reared as C of E. As a teenager and during my Confirmation ceremony by the Dean, I experienced an epiphany. I have enjoyed a guilt-free life as an atheist ever since.
My generation of the family were worked on very thoroughly by our maternal grandmother, an extreme anti-RC bigot. Much to her chagrin, we all married Catholics. (My blonde cousin even married a dark black Catholic and was, of course, immediately disinherited. She was later reinstated when Nanna saw the gorgeous honey-coloured babies that resulted from the union).
By the time we were getting married, most of us were at least irreligious, and none of us converted to the Catholicism of our spouse. As far as I know, all of the spouses have abandoned their religion too.
Nevertheless, I believe that the Christian religions, being taught in both religious and state schools, gave children a very good grounding in ethics and social behaviour. It was certainly more benign than that being offered by most other cultures.
We were not locked into our faiths by such threats as beheading in the market place, and so, as adults we were able to make up our own minds about what we believed.
Compare all that to what has happened in Australia in the last 30 years or so. The current generation of teenagers and young adults seem to be more intent on killing themselves and others, than brotherly love and kindness to their neighbours, and they definitely lack the social graces earlier generations were taught.
It's going to get worse and Maxine says it all.

(Apologies for the long comment.)

Boy on a bike said...

I'll go with Skeeter's last comment.

One grandmother of mine was rabidly anti-catholic. Mum still shivers when she considers that I hooked up with one, and that my kids are nominally micks.

She also believed that the earth was flat. Interesting things they taught in her particular sect.

Ou favourite chant at any inter-school activity, like footy, swimming or even debating was "kill the micks", which sounds great when bellowed by 600 boys at full tilt and in unison, and repeated for a minute or two.

Paco said...

kae: I hope you won't be offended, but may I say that you have a gorgeous pair of pins.

Anonymous said...

I'll second that Paco.