Will you support this Religious discrimination??
By asish1672
@asish1672 (338)
United Arab Emirates
April 1, 2007 11:48pm CST
SOrry friends, this discussion of mine, will be little lenthy. For your info, my daughter studies in a Indian(CBSE board) school in Dubai. Recently when they started a new session in kindergarden, I was going through her textbooks. You might be knowing, that most of the KG standard books are filled with pictures and alphabets. In one of these pages, there were pictures of the places of worship, from different religions,like Church, Temple, Mosque, Gurudwara etc. I was shocked to find that All the pictures, except that of the mosque was painted black, with a marker. I was very upset and confused too!! So I called her Class Teacher, to get an explanation. She told me that, Since this is a Islamic country, all the study books, those are imported, are scanned by the Ministry of Education of Dubai, where all these Non-Islamic pictures and articles are blocked. Now friends, tell me, do you think that a religion can preserve it's sanctity by this kind of acts? Do you think, it is wise to prevent the students to learn about the world? Would you have really supported this kind of a act?
1 person likes this
10 responses
@infinitus (110)
• United States
4 Apr 07
I think this manner of discrmination is hurtful. Its a hindrance to the growing minds which are innocent and pure.I do agree that one should believe in one own's culture but i totally and strongly disagree the condemnation of other's beliefs.
Faith should not be forced or ill treated .Its not one's God teaching differences but its the difference of opinions amongst "human minds".
I would just say "Whatever is flexible and flowing will tend to grow,whatever is rigid and blocked will wither and die"-Tao Te Ching.
@gsnarayanan (1704)
• India
2 Apr 07
I agree with the above responses. I do not support such acts. But we can not help such acts because it is their country. In india, we all live like brothers. We have many religions, many languages, many customs. But we all live together as a pure democracy. Our government dose support and respect all religions! This example should be publicised all over the world for a happy society which is not affected by religion! I think myLot will support me,
1 person likes this
@asish1672 (338)
• United Arab Emirates
2 Apr 07
Yes you are right. Being born and brought up in a country like India, it is very difficult to digest these type of happenings.
@sudiptacallingu (10879)
• India
2 Apr 07
no sane person would ever think of supporting such actions on the part of a Govt. but the funniest part is than are all muslims residing in Dubai mad? no, they are perfectly sane muslims who know and look at nothing beyond their religion. for most muslims the world over, life starts and ends at Islam and those in India are no exception. muslims' one and only agenda in life seems to propagate Islam and they would do anything and everything to fulfil that aim, even distorting small children's books. it maybe a very shameful act for us but for muslims, it is justified and very much acceptable.
@nafeesa_mohd (281)
• India
7 Apr 07
well being a muslim i know how much it is necessary for us to keep our children as muslims and good in their faith... but i will not prefer mixing religion into education... because i believe a true believer is some one who is exposed to all religion and then he or she finds out his or her true religion.... if a kid is taught properly from their young age, they're are going follow their belief truly.... and i wont accept that black markings over other worshipping places like churches and temple.... be it muslim schools, hindus school.... or christian schools....
@vijigopi (991)
• United States
2 Apr 07
Hi, I can understand ur predicament. Since Dubai is an islamic state and all islamic states are mostly fanatic about their religion, you can't expect anything better from those people. But, that does not mean it is the end of learning for our children. As parents, we can make sure that we teach our children everything we want to teach them about... nobody can stop that. There are so many ways of teaching your children, the internet is one of them.
Definitely, its not to preserve Islam's sanctity they do this, but out of ignorance and extreme intolerance.
1 person likes this
@tarachand (3895)
• India
7 Apr 07
I wonder how the Muslims would react if the same thing ws done to a pciture of a mosque? They have limited understanding, the countries in the middle east, only money,a nd when the tow combine, you ahve a deadly combination of extermism and madness-which eads to terrorism that is what Islam is most famous for - a major producer of terrorism, the oil is God given, not an Islamic invetion.
@samrat16 (2442)
• India
2 Apr 07
I don't support any religion discrimination at any time in my life. I think it's dubai people who are scared to share everybody's religion and thought. FReedom of expression does matters to me and I respect it. In India ,our country ,we respect all possible religion and trust in equality and love. They are doing this on purpose and I don't support any government for this kind of behaviour.
@universalsameera (187)
• Australia
4 Apr 07
Pure ignorance. Everyone should have freedom of religion. They must not live in a shell. They have to explore new things and choose for themselves the path. I do understand how strict the muslim countries are when it comes to Islam religion but I don't think they have done the right thing. By the way I'm a buddhist and thanks for the picture of the buddha.
@fatteh_kateh (187)
• Australia
2 Apr 07
I think its disgusting. Weather or not those books were imported it still is wrong. Children should have the freedom to learn and experience new things. It makes me sad that so many young children are faced with racism, discrimination and bullying everyday
@asish1672 (338)
• United Arab Emirates
2 Apr 07
I also felt very upset on experiancing this and was sorry for our coming generation.
