February 14, 2005

Overwhelmed

I have at least temporarily removed my posting regarding teaching about Muhammad in Religious Education.

I have done this for two reasons. First, too many of the comments do not reflect my views. Second, because the underlying information was related to me by a work colleague as being how she was told to inform students in response to my query about this, I have not had an opportunity to check this further with my department or with OCR. As this is half-term, I may not be able to confirm this for a few days.

UPDATED: I have confirmed the situation with OCR as posted above.

Posted by david at February 14, 2005 11:20 PM | TrackBack
Comments

Good luck. That is a very difficult and touchy situation to find yourself in. God bless.

Posted by: minorclergy at February 15, 2005 12:12 AM

I'd suggest that Christian charity would allow you to pray for peace for Mohammed ... hate the sin, love the sinner? I say this as a Christian myself.

As long as your intent isn't to worship him you should be able to do this without qualms.

Posted by: Idle Fellow at February 15, 2005 12:57 AM

Beyond all the discussion & debate that took place, the burden is upon you as a Christian and a teacher to deal with this issue rightly, and we're praying for you.

Posted by: Michael at February 15, 2005 09:25 AM

Will you keep us updated, David? This is an interesting story, and it would be a shame if the truth weren't made public.

Posted by: lgfwatch at February 15, 2005 10:57 AM

I see that the BNP has picked up on your urban myth. It will soon mark you.

It is clearly nonsense. Would you have to do this during your teaching and registation?

My only question is why you think starting another piece of nonsense is of any worth.

Posted by: eric at February 15, 2005 03:51 PM

The BNP has picked up on this? Where?

Posted by: lgfwatch at February 15, 2005 03:57 PM

I checked this by phoning OCR today -- 01223 553311 -- and asking them. They've had a lot of calls about this, apparently.

They say that your work colleague is misinformed.

Apparently they customarily put an Arabic colophon meaning 'peace be upon him' after Mohammed's name in course materials relating to Islam, just as they refer to 'G-d' in course materials relating to Judaism. They do this out of respect to the sensibilities of Muslim or Jewish students and teachers but they most certainly don't expect candidates to do the same.

This story's been picked up, with attribution, by an American blog

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=14695_British_Dhimmitude_Watch#comments

where people have been going wild about it. I tried to post this information there but you need to be registered with the site and it isn't taken registrations at the moment. Someone who is registered with them might want to put them straight.

Best wishes

Posted by: SteveGlynn at February 15, 2005 06:58 PM