Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Muslim Kids Opt for Catholic High School

OnIslam makes note of an article in today's Globe and Mail about an interesting phenomenon: the growing number of Muslim students attending Catholic schools. These kids and their parents feel comfortable there because of the schools' more conservative social values, but, of course, under such circumstances (those being that this is a Christian school with no mosqueteria) there's bound to be a certain amount of, er, discomfort:
In Canada, a student must be Catholic in order to be enrolled in a Catholic elementary school.
But at the high-school level, faith is not a must as long as there is a space for the student.
At class, Daliya feels comfortable with using the chapel whenever she needs to pray.
But she sometimes feels awkward at Christian occasions as Christmas or Easter.
“They suggest that non-Catholics go up for a blessing, but I don’t know, I don’t want to do that,” said Daliya.
“So I sit down and everyone’s everyone’s like, ‘Why aren’t you going up?’ I tell them I just don’t want to.”
Fair enough. But why make it sound as though it's somehow insensitive of Catholics in a specifically Catholic school to do so? (No need to answer. I know exactly why it's being done--to make them look bad.)

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