A primary school in Amsterdam had a great idea for its kids aged 7-10 — to expose them to other cultures and religions, including a visit to a Mosque. What they learned, however, at the El Mouchidine mosque was a lesson in hate from its unhinged chairman, Mohamed Guennoun, who allegedly explained to the children that any non-believers were “dogs.”
The school officials wrote to parents apologizing for the incident: “We are shocked that during the guided tour, the mosque’s chairman told the children and chaperoning parents that non believers were dogs. We consider this statement as unacceptable since we allow our children to partake in this project to develop respect for freedom of religious choice”.
To the schools credit, it has tried to downplay the incident, noting that past visits have went well.
Yet, such statements by the chairman of the Mosque may reveal more than some slip of the tongue. The concern is that it reveals a hateful, extremist view of Islam that has taken hold in some corners of the religion, click here. To say such things to children magnifies the outrage, the very objection made repeatedly to the hateful messages of Hamas television, click here.
Mohamed Guennoun insisted that this is not what he meant. First, he says that his statement was that “Islam is good, other beliefs are also good. But if you don’t believe, that is not good, then you only eat and sleep, then you’re just like an animal, such as a dog.”
This is not a great improvement, because (while it gives a pass to other religions) it still tells the children that atheists and agnostics are dogs.
What is confusing, however, is his follow-up. Guennoun says that he was speaking about the views of extremists, not him, and how they view people who do not pray five times a day. Click here.
In fairness to the mosque, they appear to have a long history of such visits without complaints. Perhaps the solution is to put Guennoun on the cookies and milk team for the next tour.
and here’s an article that we wish would be read in Jeddah, Bagdad, Tehran, and elsewhere:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1116041
niblet – perhaps I might recommend a book that would come closer to answering your inquiry. http://www.kingdomcoming.com/ – respectfully, Binx101
DW quoted:
“We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.” (9/12/01) -Ann Coulter
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I think the rant by Rep. Monique Davis against Rob Sherman this week may have tied Coulter’s, though, DW, or at least come close. What was it Davis said, again? Something like, “it is dangerous to our children to know you even exist,” or words to that effect. How some Christian extremists come up with this stuff is beyond me.
Susan:
Very important point, indeed. Thanks.
Jonathan
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Hi JT, you’re welcome. 🙂 As one of the “evil unbelievers” myself, I have been threatened with either hell or the lake of fire in the “afterlife” more times than I can count. It actually gets rather tedious after a while, so I like to create zinger comebacks just for fun. One comeback response I haven’t used in a while is that when that happens, I’ll be hanging out at Satan’s Bar and Grill, on the corner of Fire and Brimstone, and having a lot more fun than they (fundamentalists) will. The last time I used that line, it was quite effective…for a little while, anyway.
“We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.” (9/12/01) -Ann Coulter
susan, when is the last time christians called for beheading infidels.???? just wondering.
WOOF!
Susan:
Very important point, indeed. Thanks.
Jonathan
To be completely fair, there are Christian churches who aren’t very kind (to put it mildly) toward children and adults who are atheists or agnostics as well. The bigotry against “unbelievers” isn’t restricted to the Islamic faith.
Not surprising at all that the children were treated this way.