Muslim prayer rooms should be opened in Catholic schools

[mekender]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... aders.html

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

The Catholic bishops of England and Wales also want facilities in schools for Islamic pre-prayer washing rituals.

The demands go way beyond legal requirements on catering for religious minorities.

But the bishops - who acknowledge 30 per cent of pupils at their schools hold a non-Christian faith - want to answer critics who say religious schools sow division.

The recommendations were made in a document, Catholic Schools, Children of Other Faiths and Community Cohesion.

'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.

'Existing toilet facilities might be adapted to accommodate individual ritual cleansing which is sometimes part of religious lifestyle and worship.

'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.

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?'

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.'

The recommendations have been approved by Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Birmingham and the favourite to succeed Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor as Catholic primate.

But it would be up to governing bodies of each school to decide whether to act on the guidance.

[Jered]

Erm. WTF has happened to the Catholic religion?

[DougWojtowicz]

Dammit, we didn't elect an ex-Nazi Pope to CODDLE those bums!

BENEDICT! We need a new Crusade!

[SoupOrMan]

Erm. WTF has happened to the Catholic religion?

It got blindsided by state-enforced British Politeness Towards the Wog.

[The Quiet Man]

You can damn well bet that there won't be holy water for crossing oneself in any Muslim schools or mosques. And why is it that muslim parents would send their children to catholic schools anyway. Can you imagine a devout christian family sending their kids to a madrasah? Yeah, me either. Perhaps these muslim parents are trying to stir up trouble? Could that be even a remote possibility?

I am just beside myself with the way that institutions are bending over for the religion of peace. Come on...that Catholic church is kissing the mullah's asses. Do they think that soon the muslims will start showing up to mass and taking communion? The only time any of them will ever show up at a Catholic church will be to bomb the place. I am honestly embarrassed with the way that governments and so many other entities knuckle under when the robed ones shake their Koran at them. It's pathetic. Christianity and the western world is giving in to the enemy without even a fight.

[Termite]

[strike]Christianity and the western world[/strike] England is giving in to the enemy without even a fight.

Fixed it for ya.

I just don't think the American Roman Catholic Church is gonna roll over for Muslims. I know FOR CERTAIN that the schools founded by the OPC/PCA Presbyterians, Southern Baptists, and the various Pentacostal denominations sure won't.
Hell, it wasn't that many years ago that Southern Baptists made up a fair amount of the KKK membership.

[DougWojtowicz]

Giving up to the enemy...

The religion isn't the enemy. If it were, there's a billion of them, and there could be no stopping them.

Argument failure.

[mekender]

Giving up to the enemy...

The religion isn't the enemy. If it were, there's a billion of them, and there could be no stopping them.

Argument failure.

the basis of the religion is that their religion should enslave or kill all nonbelievers... as such, it is the religion that is the enemy until members of that religion cause reforms internally...

the fact that there is a billion of them means that in all likelihood, they will actually win... but that isnt going to make me just lay down and take it.

[DougWojtowicz]

I'd come up with an answer, but bigots like you would only take any condemnations of violence by Muslim leaders as "evidence" that "I'm off my meds."

[mekender]

i love when pointing out the truth becomes bigoted...

of course in canada and most of europe it is already illegal to do so...

sorry but the current islamic religion and its widely accepted doctrines are incompatible with the rest of the world.

unless of course things like enslaving non believers, honor killings, forced slavery for women, denial of rights for women, teaching children to wage holy war, bombing civilian targets and more is somehow a good way to get along with the world.

like it or not, we are smack in the middle of a religious war...

there are only 3 potential outcomes.... 1) islam is wiped out. 2) islam wipes out the other religions. 3) people inside the islamic faith reform their religion to a more modern stance that allows them to live with others

#3 is the only one that can happen without massive amounts of death...