I attended a convent school for a few years during my childhood. The only time I remember being split up from my classmates was during Islamiyat class. The Islamiyat teacher would come in and ask us girls to pull out our white duppattas while the Christian girls would form a line and exit the classroom for their own lessons in the bigger hall. None of us ever really questioned the practice – we would study our religion and they would study theirs – it made perfect sense. Never did we think that the school or this country weren’t big and bold enough to host both together. Now, however, times have changed. Tolerance and respect are two virtues that were kidnapped a long, long time ago – they remain missing even today.
A 13-year-old girl was recently expelled from her school due to alleged blasphemy. She misspelled the word ‘naat’ and that was reason enough for the school to expel her. Not for a minute did anyone pay attention to the fact that she was a student – a learner. She should have been taught what the right word was, what the right spelling was and what the mistake she made was. But instead, she was expelled, while her mother, who was a nurse, was transferred out of her hometown near Abbotabad. All that for a spelling mistake made by someone who until that day, was probably oblivious to what blasphemy even meant.
But before we get into the debate of whether she should have been coached or punished, we should ask, as pointed out in other blogs, why was a Christian girl being made to learn a ‘naat’ anyway? And if she actually was aware of what blasphemy meant and what the consequences of going against that law in Pakistan are, would she have actually done this just to stir some mischief?
To cause a bit of a commotion in class, we would often hide teacher’s books, pretend to be sick, pick on the nerds and pass secret notes – never did we think of initiating a rebellion against religion – especially not if we knew that the worst form of punishment to such an act would be death! Not detention, not suspension, not a letter to the parents, but death. Lucky for the 13-year-old girl, the not-so-harsh-hearted Muslim clerics decided that expulsion out of the school and the town would be enough to teach a lesson. Sadly, what these clerics and teachers don’t realise is, you teach a lesson through books, anecdotes, lectures and nurturing – not through condemnation, alienation and humiliation.
But who is going to point these things out? The government’s too busy fighting international threats to focus on the internal ones breeding throughout the country. The few who do take a stand are shot down and although they might not be forgotten, their sacrifices often are. We cause a hue and cry about educating our children and spreading awareness but who needs this education if all it does is create hatred and differences? Who needs this awareness if all it does is build fear and prejudices?
The writer is the Deputy Editor at Dawn.com
Such reaction due to a misspell makes evident the intolerance prevalent in our society.
Imagine…A muslim student misspelling a Biblical word in a Christian school..what do u think the response would be? This is pure “jalahat ka muzhaira”…as in so many other incidents happening everyday in Pakistan. We can just pray that our leaders will wake up and do something about the whole system.
reading more and more news from Pakistan makes you more and more sad…
we’re everywhere in the news and reason for concern, only in the bad news…
bad publicity…bad image…fading hope…
The poor girl was made target for no reason. In Fact in all this scenario the error in spelling is the poor teaching of the teacher , who can’t teach students properly how to spell. The teacher should apologize and School authority must bring the student back to school . Otherwise In Pakistan this type of incidents will never finish
Blasphemy law is a blot on the human rights face of Pakistan. It needs to be totally abolished if not at least heavily amended.
This is like Sangh Parivar in India wants to punish those who refuse to sing Vande Mataram!
i would like to ask everyone to pray for those who are misguided
This simply reflects the depth of human mind in the society. You deny yourself the depth of knowledge and human spirit, you carry that shallowness with you and that comes to bug you in other ways.
I think most of readers are discussing an altogether separate issue. It has nothing to do with separation or combined, it is case of a student misspelling and being punished very severely for it because the word has some religious connotations. What is done or not done in India or Britain has also nothing to do with it. Even if it is done in India, United States or Britain; it does not measure up to our modern ethics and morality.
Evil and good is everywhere, what I read in this article and almost all of responses from Pakistani readers, it is an endeavor to exorcise the devil. God bless you guys and wish you all the best. You are like early Christians and Sikhs.
These horrific stories makes one wonder the type of Islam Pakistanis are practicing. The extremists are a blot and a scourge on the religion.
Indeed It Does!
The terrorists are set free and a 13 years old kid is punished for a spelling mistake. Where is this country headed to?
My condolences!
Let children have their childhood.
Well really and truelly each member of the government is busy minting money, the so called external threats are part of exibition noora kushti.
ignorance and arrogance are a dangerous combination and lethal when it comes to religion whether it is the taliban or pastor jones….what a shame that prejudices can fall to this abysmal level of denying a child her right to education…what a pity
This should not bar her from taking education. May be the autority doesn’t want other people to use their right of democracy and hurt her.
I am absolutely disgusted by this narrow minded act of expelling the poor girl and her mother from the school and the town respectively. Where is our country headed? The government ( if there is any) should take strong notice of this and not only restate the girl and transfer her mother back to the town but also impose heavy fines on those responsible for this stupid act. Pakistan is for everyone regardless of ethnicity and religion and no one should be forcibly taught religion against their will let alone being punished for not following it.
Are not there a lot of hasty generalizations based on ones own experiences?
In my class at school there was only one Chrisitan boy. Very nice and always scoring above average. He was exampt from Islamiat calss and was given a choice of alternate sujbect, for that school did not have resouces and he had to do self studied. He opted to attend Islamiat class volunarily. He was never tested on this calss.
A lot of schools do not have enough resoruces even for the majority of stuents forget for a few minority students, those can potentially be from several different groups. We cannot blame them totaly. Although i wish they are more creative to tacle to this kind of situations.
R
she was not being made to learn a naat. she misspelled the word. it doesn’t mean she was being taught a naat
I highly doubt this is the whole story being reported here. Such stupidity can not happen even in Pakistan.
Well we should get rid of all the extremists and finally should educate ourselves what true Islam is.
This is the extremism at its best. Do you believe that a girl of 8th grade can desecrate Islam?
Pakistan is an Islamic state. A lot of the so called liberal Pakistanis who do talk about democracy but like to peddle a western view of Islam against the wishes of the majority. Get this – Pakistan is not a secular state. If you want to live in Pakistan, you have to accept it and live like a true muslim as the MAJORITY of muslim clerics define a muslim to be.
those students are too young to appreciate religion
this school used bad judgement, she should return to that school or state should give her scholarship to another school
religion has no place in school anyways, in my opinion. We should follow Turkish model for education.
I think this is not the whole truth.
Cannot imagine, or ever heard of, anyone being thrown out of school simply for miss-spelling.
There could be other reasons which have not been disclosed.
Hi Zafari, I full agree with your view. Being an Indian I have an inherent hatred towards Pakistan and anything associated with that country yet I find it absolutely unbelievable that something like this will happen there. There is definitely more to it than meets the eyes.
More than anything, the thing responsible for this is that people are stupid. They act in really irrational ways sometimes, and a lot of it comes from a combination of a lack of understanding and fear. It’s not the first human rights violation, and it’s not the last. I hope one day, justice can finally arrive.
Avery well written piece. The energy media should devote is to rid these extremist issues. We lived in far more civilized and islamic pakistan in 50-late 70′s than now. The enlightened voters will hopefully lead the country back to sanity. I agree that we educate Pakistanis to be intolerant and callous about the feelings of others,even the TV anchors refer to pakistan in terms of only for muslims in the country. What about the rest of the country folks with other religions.
Why is naat being taught in school anyway? What does it have to do with a kid’s education? A naat is nothing but poetry made to give one a high as a muslim (no different than opium). It does not teach one how to think critically, which should be the main objective of education.
Nobody has any right to teach Islamic studies to a Christian girl against her will. Secondly if she made a spelling mistake that needed to be corrected like any other misspelled word.
Where does the blasphemy come into it.
We just turned one more innocent child to hate Islam.
Having lived most of my life out of Pakistan and traveled in many other countries I find (we) Pakistanis are the most intolerant and petty minded people.
I just keep on hoping that we have more people thinking like Mr. Afzal Mir above, just hoping so that this country can come to it’s senses. By the way, a very soul searching article by the writer, SHYEMA, keep up the good work and God bless you always, amen.
Islam is a religion of peace. Islam gives minorities their due rights. It is responsibility of the government to investigate the matter thoroughly and bring the culprits in court.
I do not accept your first two sentences.
I am from Mumbai. I did go to a Christian school, not a convent school, but lot of funding came from outside. We were separated for Moral Science class and Christians went to study Bible or Christian studies. Moral Science did not teach any religion but I am sure that we were separated.
It must have been a Catholic school and those are Catechism classes which are only imparted to Catholics. And that too is optional (as per fundamental rights under Indian constitution – you cannot have compulsory religious classes). But that is not exactly SEPARATION ON RELIGIOUS BASIS. Rest of the students are simply taught moral science which has no religion but only about good deeds etc.
Mr. Mittal, morality emanated from religion, historically so to speak. If it werent for religious ideologies, the fittest would have murdered the meekest by now.
@Mr. Saad – I apologize but I don’t agree with you. Chinese don’t murder each other in China. I have been in China for a couple of years and there is almost no religion but the population has the same if not better morality.
This is so typical in Pakistan. I remember when I was studying at Aitchison College Lahore, one of our English teachers came in one day, and started bashing Christianity and Hinduism. We expected this from our Islamic Studies teachers, who spared nothing at their futile attempts to show how great Islam is. Perhaps the pathetic state in which our country is well deserved, conisdering the evil we breed amongst ourselves.
You are so right, Mr. Aadil about the breeding
AADIL… I couldn’t have said it better myself..Thank you and God Love you..and Bless you. Amen
In the world of facebook,twitter and the internet online downloads this story will spread far and wide.Makes one wonder as to who is running the country.The mullahs or the government.It makes us wonder why we of the world should help your country financially or otherwise.
This will continue to happen as long as people of Pakistan have more regards for blasphemy laws than they have for tax and traffic laws.
Halifax, I had to laugh at loud at your statement… it is soooo true!! I was more afraid of the traffic and driving conditions in Pakistan when I lived there for two years than I was of being kidnapped or hurt by anyone… I am serious!!!!
All laws of the country needed to be abided. Blasphemy law is to protect the religious values as Pakistan is an Islamic state.
In contrast to you, I was also educated in misionarry schools and college in Pakistan. At school Scripture (old as well as new testament) was a compulsory subject. Our class was made up of over 20 girls, all muslims except three who were christians. Our morning assembly commenced with hymn singing and a reading by the Principal of a Biblical text. In college too the assembly had both these components. Our parents did grumble, but they had no say in wanting separate classes for Muslim students. I do not see what the fuss is about if a christian girl had to attend Islamiyaat classes.
You sound like an old mother-in-law. “My mother-in-law did this to me so its only fair that I do this to my daughter-in-law”.
If you didn’t have religious freedom, that does not mean you should not stand up for it when it comes to other people. The chain has to be broken somewhere my dear.
Dr.Shamsi, what you are stating is not correct…unless you are in your 70′s…I am in 56, my father was in service……went to convents all over pakistan….quetta, lahore, peshawer, sukker, hyderabad. there was some hymn in the morning…but we had islamiyat while others had christian teaching…we were never taught any other religion than islam………………what is happening with the christian girl is absolutely wrong and unjust………and we will be punished for such unjustness…….as a nation pakistanis need to look at themselves …ask forgiveness from allah…and straighten themselves………this unjustness in name of religion is transgression…and a there is severe penalty for transgression….
Now nobody notices, what the minorities are doing. But without going into details of a case, the so called free society lovers just make a fuss of it. please go through the whole incident and then comment. i dont think even the writer has firsthand info of the matter.
Seriously there is absolutely no harm in teaching Islamiat to a non-muslim why do Muslims become apologetic…. BTW I went to a convent school and although I was never taught bible, I did have no choice when it came to singing catholic rhymes…
that girl has been banished from her school and her mother has lot her job. I doubt if you suffered these consequences when you were in the Missionary School, I don’t think so, cause in our schools, we don’t force anyone.
Dr. Shamsi, given what you were made to study, do you think this little girl was treated fairly? I think not. Students go to school to learn and if she was made to spell the word, she should have been corrected. It is Jahalat to treat her and her family the way they were treated.
It was not an Islamiyat class. It was Urdu. Big difference. My children are minorities, and do not attend a missionary school. They are also made to stand every morning and recite Islamic prayers in Arabic. It makes no difference to me, as I see that as only them gaining knowledge about another religion. However, when religion is inserted into subjects, that is not the same, or right.
Teaching Islam to christian or Muslim is not wrong and should not be made an issue. but same should be there about other religions for Muslims. Anyway action taken on girl is wrong
Hello guys. School is place to learn not to be examined. We are human beings. 13 year old girl, what do you expect from her? Come on guys time to grow up. Don’t represent Islam as extreme religion. Our Holy Prophet PBUH Didn’t Taught us that. He taught us kindness, politeness. Our Holy Prophet Treated non muslims as same as muslims. Total injustice done to poor girl. This issue should be raised in parliament. We have to create love and attraction toward us not hate.
Once again, Mr. Adil, appreciate your moderate views.
adil…you are so correct!! Thanks for standing up for the “poor girl”. I agree whoever caused this injustice, should be brought before the court..and not a court that takes 10 years or more to make a decision, like the courts I am most familiar with there in Pak..and also not a court that as soon as they begin punishment, they are allowed to go free, like in karo… I like your comment and your suggesting that “come on guys it’s time to grow up”, and better yet…”we have to create love ….not hate”. Only God creates Love, and all Love comes from God..God is Love. Continue to seek Him.
i agree with the writter
for i studied in a school that was controlled by the shia community and most of the teacher were of the sect too but none of them ever tried to influence one of the sunni kids to converge into shia or vice versa even at milads kids had an option if they wanted to participate or not and if they would attend the ceremony or not for in some sects its not allowed so they never made it obligatory for those students then with the non muslims it was pretty common to walk out of the class when the other other students had islamiat lessons and no1 ever objected infact in my class i remember once a student tried making fun of the hindus and was given corpal punishment and suspension for a few days while the principle next morning addressed the entire school about how important it is not to make fun of the others religion for its there belief and no1 has the right to say nything
as for blasphemous law well people don’t actaully know what it is and where is it applied, if one would be wise then they would be aware of the fact that it is only applied when some1 delebratly insults the religion or the Prophet (pbuh) not when some1 is in error and even then it is advised to check the mental state of the accused and if they are found mentally sane then it is advised to look into there past for maybe some muslim might have done unjustice to offend them (for if that is the reason then the accused would be released while that muslim would be held in contempt for his act which in islamic laws would be by death for they did something that led to blasphamsy) if that is not true only then that person can be accused and given a death penalty…..
the mulla culture that prevails in our country has destroyed islam, people here jump to conclusions and quote quran or the hadith on every aspect of life without even checking its sources or in what pretext was it used, what people need to understand is that islam is a religion for all while quran and hadith is for understanding it not to be preached by mullas or muftis, it is for a common man/woman to read them and understand it
Somewhere along the way we seem to have lost our humanity. I was wondering what Jinnah or Gandhi have thought if they were to read this news. But then, I guess if they were alive today, this probably would never have happened. Shame on us…
There were better people than these two; and people do what please them.
nice n simple analysis by the author,pakistani society must stand up atleast in this case, an innocent child has been punished.ISLAM teaches peace n pardon.hope pakistani “muslims” forgive this innocent girl.
What has this innocent girl done that Pakistani Muslims should forgive her. We should be asking forgiveness from her for what was done to her. Islam does not teach that we make a mistake and try to appear magnanimous and forgive someone who did not do anything wrong in the first place.Grow up
It is like a bully beating up a child, and then forcing the child to beg for forgiveness. Is this common this approach to forgiveness – beat up on the innocent first, then appear magnanimous in your forgiveness of the “victim”.
I was born in Peshawar and studied all my education till my engineering degree in Peshawar. I am Muslim but even “I don’t want ppl of other religion should be taught Naat or Humad”. But many people including the author don’t know that Naat or Humad are not part of Islamic studies instead they are part of Urdu course, which is compulsory for all Pakistanis. Ofcourse, it is not practically possible to have 1 set of Urdu course for Muslims and a 2nd of non Muslims because is Urdu is actually the language of “Indian Muslims or Muslims” so all the literature is circled around that fact as Author usually use religion in their books and articles. Hope this will clear some point to the author and some other people here, who make issues out of nothing instead their focus should be to make things better rather than just criticizing everything. Love u all.
Thagt is exactly the author’s point. Naat and Humad should NOT be part of the Urdu course for anyone.Faiz, Iqbal – isn’t there enough richness in Urdu literature?
Ok, but why was she expelled? Seems to me that we always side step the real issue and talk about everything else.
There are several convent schools in India trying to propagate Bible lessons under the pretext of Moral Science / Education. When such missionery works starts some parents will object to it. Then the school authorities ( the church of various christian sects ) instead of discontinuing the religious lessons, will separate the non-christians from such class sessions.
The comments from ‘Indian’ is so not true, i dont think he is indian at all. Never ever I have heard ever that children at school were separated basis of religion. I studied in chennai and we had one language study’tamil’. I learnt poems written about religious themes, we had poems on hindu religious gods, muslim prophet, jesus. My teached who taught those literature always taught us with same equality and taught us how all preach the same love one another. Please India has many flaws in religious arena as well, but its better democracy than any western democracy on religious sense.
I agree , this is what I also gone thru
Same experience. Never experienced this nor heard from any one..
The word Islam comes from the Arabic Word “silm” which means peace. Pakistanis please save your country from yourself.
i have never seen people being expelled for throwing eggs on the board while teacher is writing on them… well… thats what institutions are for… to change and make student better people.. if they were already perfect why would they need teaching… hangon its called teaching isnt it.. or its investigating… what is wrong with the world… i was in delhi and one of my friend who is a big big big shot of a muslim group in india, showed me a question paper where a picture of a very respectable man was made in a very nice ways and talking to some people who are listening to him carefully and below that was description of the life of Mohummad(PBUH) in the best and more respected way possible… now he told me he saved the teacher who created this paper from being lynched… why for being respectable… what is wrong with people here…
what a disgrace!
This is Judgment passing by a bystander too early too soon. I have problem with the media showing pictures of people arrested under suspicion or untold stories without actually waiting for the ruling. What happened to innocent until proven guilty? And they display pictures of innocents, victimized by the criminals. Why should we not protect their identity? I brought up this because people intent to judge them personally maybe abused some more. They must protect the victim at all cost.
Ignorance knows no bounds.
It is hatred, not only ignorance. It is a symptiom of the brutalized people themselves brutalizing more powerless people, of the bully feeling powerful by harming the innocent. It is the hatred propagated as religious duty.
And Pakistan considers itself a moral nation? Is there any wonder why we are a failure.? Sad truth, if we were part of india, there wold be greater protection for Christians, shias, liberal muslims. Additionally we would be better educated and prosperous ad Bangladesh might still be here. Would it be perfect, no, but better than the jingoistic failed state mess Pakistan is today.
The Writer makind a basic mistake. Christian girl was not studing Islamiyat. It should be rather Urdu Subject in Which “Naat” is included for eloboration etc.
Urdu subject is compulsry not optional in any where in Pakistan.
Rauf, maybe you should learn English (both grammar and spelling) before advocating your thoughts in that language.
so is she still a subject of blasphemy ? how and on what grounds is she help, if what you are saying is true.
help above = *held*
Well brother even full knowledge is dangerous…cant You see around you.
And we call ourselves Muslims… Shame on us! I think all these ignorants should gain true knowledge about what Islam says.
I know of a cse in bangladesh where a hindu girl was forced to read Quran. She aws the only hindu girl in the school, and the school would not allow her to study her religion, not at school, and not at home by her parents. When you live in a muslim society, you cannot hope anything better.
I strongly believe that we Muslim should learn & Implement our religion deeply. Such issues are cause of ignorance / lack of Islamic Knowlege.
“little knowlege is Dangerous ..”
being a christian is she suppose to learn islam ? do you fancy urself learning christianity in a convent school ?
I grew up in the UK, went to a ‘secular’ primary and secondary school. In primary school hymns and songs were taught to all children, and in secondary school taking religious studies was not optional (and the majority of that was Christianity). If schools teach the relgion/culture/language of the majority of the people around what is the harm, Secondly the naat was taught during Urdu lessons not Islamiat. English and Urdu alike have much of their literature steeped in religious iconography.
Fine, Mr. Ahmed, if you feel that it is part of the Urdu lessons, but, again, BUT, what was the reason for her expulsion from the school and her mother losing her job, would much appreciate if you shed your light on it.
Not student teacher required to be educated, I have been educated in government school in the backward area of Karachi called layari and even go to darkest lanes of layari (singoolane) but till 9th grade there was no subject like Islamiyat. It seems that Pakistani society became obcessed with religion without any plan and programming.
History of Mankind is segregated into 3 phases. ANcient times, medieval times and modern times. Ancient times people feared nature and prayed nature; concept of religion started emerging in medieval times; and in modern times mankind started blindly following extreme form of religion and all that which can never be justified in the name of someone referred to as all powerful, merciful, kind and omnipotent.
I think author is doing a great job by taking stand for the 13 year old student. I totally agree that she should not have to write the definition to begin with and the reaction is absolutely absurd to a class incident. The teacher was wrong and people protesting about that also completely wrong. Furthermore the religious leaders actually made sense when they did following actions:
Mufti Naeem of Jamia Naeemia, Karachi, and Allama Asghar Askari, president of the Punjab chapter of the Majlis-e-Wahdul Muslimeen both agreed that Faryal should be pardoned. Other religious scholars who came to the girl’s defence included Professor Sajid Mir, head of the Jamiat Ahle Hadith and Mufti Muhammad Khan Qadri, convenor of the Milli Majlis-e-Sharai.
The girl did not commit any crime, so there is no question of giving her a “Pardon”. The muftis and the mullahs you named in your comment need their head examined. Pakistan can become a livable country, if Pakistan can get rid of these mullahs and muftis. The blasphemy law is the blackest and ugliest law created and supported by these muftis and mullahs. No civilized country in the world has such laws. The teacher and the principal of that school must be thrown out and must not be allowed to teach or manage any learning institute.
I attended a convent school in Salem (Tamil Nadu) and I remember that our moral science class was the first hour of school where my teachers used to read us stories from Chicken Soup for the Soul and have discussions based on the stories..Those were good times..
religious respect is to let them live they way they are.if she volunteer to perform Naat she should have given chances to improve her with benevolence. this is what Islam teaches in my humble opinion. please make muslims better muslim.
“Sadly, what these clerics and teachers don’t realise is, you teach a lesson through books, anecdotes, lessons and nurturing – not through condemnation, alienation and humiliation.”
Well said. I fully agree with this above statement. It’s a shame that these “Muslims” are so keen on teaching others about the faith and yet when it comes to following the spirit of the Deen, they end up so lacking in that department.
No establishment should try to impart or enforce lessons on the religion. Religion should start and end with individuals at best or should find its boundaries within the families. Anything beyond that is poisonous. Keep away from this world menace.
I dont understand, what is the meaning of Naat? how was it misspelled? how serious is the misspell? All this aside, shunning out a student for misspell?? If it is done to provoke some body didnt she already win ?
Shame on us….
I’m from a convent too and we had the same routine. 8-] It’s sad, the way people are acting up nowadays.
This is to much, I don’t know when people know real meaning ISLAM and its lesson give by our Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H). In my opinion we and out government has to change their strategies and expel these extremist to save our generation and up coming generation. Expelling student just for wrong spelling of “Naat” this ridiculous and so called educated administration of school. I am feeling really shame due to these kind of people.
Dude excuse me if what i say hurts you…but your statement “I don’t know when people know real meaning ISLAM and its lesson give by our Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H).” are too old and i have read this hundreds of time from other fellow Muslims…but guess what Extremism is still on Display in Islam around the world…So tell me till which Decade should we wait to understand the meaning of real ISLAM that you are talking about…..Don’t you think your people are doing enough bad for ISLAM then doing even a bit Good.
Sad! Indeed acts such as these disgrace Islam. We need to learn that we can never be good Muslim untill we are good human beings ….
well said…
As a writer u are doing great job. keep it high world deserve writers like you. God bless you.
I must say you did a wonderful job by writting this article and and you are right we youth are suffering by identity crisis.but your article did leave one thinking for a while and im glad that someone really spoke up thankyou
No comments from so called intellectuals. This shows how liberal Pakistanis are.
Many Intellectuals in this blog, What more do you want. Exactly they don’t count. Please let the authority do their job.
I too went to a convent school in Bombay, similarly, we used to have a class called Moral Science. The christians and other were seperated. This was a fun class, less stressful than the regular subject class. Never did anybody question these practices Nor was anybody concern about what the other group was being taught.
I don’t know which school you went to. I too went to a convent school, and we were never seperated on basis of religion. We studies Moral Science, went to the church in school and to a temple with parents. Till today have a blast both during Diwali and Christmas. Not too much of Eid as did not have any Muslims in the neighbourhood, but would love to celebrate that as well.
Exactly, I was never taught or separated during moral education classes, besides there was no religion ever taught in these classes any way but must admit the now when I look back it may have a bit influenced by Vedic Indian culture (don’t read as Hindu…)
No Indian is right..I studied in a convent and in a class of maybe 50 students about 10-15 were christians went for bible classes during the moral science class where they were further divided into catholics and the other sects of christianity and taught to read the bible as per their version..while the non christians stayed back in class and had moral classes which included lessons on manners,discipline,love,respect etc.,
I forgot to add that the students or rather the parents had an option to opt the students in or out of these bible classes irrespective of their reigion..
I went to St. Cathedral School and St. Francis’ High School in Lucknow, during the 1960s and early 1970s. We had a Moral Studies class, once a week. The Christian (Catholics only?) students went to the chapel. The remaining students (i.e., 90% of every class) stayed in the classroom. We were taught from a religion-neutral book. I remember that the first four years in school, I was taught from a book entitled How To Be Good, Parts I-IV.
nonsense, Moral Science by its very definition is about morality and not religion. Why would christians and others be separated? I have also studied it..but it was a common subject to all…
Point to be noted.
I am not able to understand this “separation” thing.
I too have been through these classes and enjoyed some beautiful stories, that is what i remember about that.
I think ‘separation and that act’ which could be condemned as ghastly one, is what has left a mark on your mind.
GET WELL SOON.
‘Indian’ – you sure the Bombay you talking about is in India and not somewhere in Pakistan
or on a second thought are you really an ‘Indian’ ? Never heard/seen or experienced a Moral Science class based on religion wherein pupils are separated on their religion in india.
Who separated people based on religion in a Moral science class ?? I too live in Bombay ,did my schooling from a convent and many of my close friends are from convent ..never did i here such a thing from them….Which School did you study ?
We were separated in Moral Science class. Hindus stayed in Moral Science class and Christians studies Bible or Christianity. Our Moral Science teacher was Hindu. I am from Mumbai.
I have been to 5 different schools in Mumbai. Never were we separated on the basis of religion. And moral science class did not teach abou a particular religion. You are just pretending to be Indian.
what is the name of that school??
Dear “indian” – Moral science classes have nothing to do with religion! and no school in india separates ppl on basis of religion. i have changed 11 schools – and followed the state requirements wherever i went! eg i learnt urdu in J&K!
Hey man u never went to any Indian school, had u, u would never have made this statement, never in India you are separated in a class based on ur religion. You are faking to be an Indian without any doubt
Guys, Convent is same every where and run by Irish nuns in Pakistan too .. we used to pray in front of Cross during the morning and no one ever had any problem with that … Shyma is talking about splitting based on religion when Christians had their religious class while we had ours at same time.
We must not forget this particular incident didn’t happen in Convent but in a small level school who most probably is run only as money making business. There are many thousand schools in Pakistan that are used as business rather than educating children.
The topic here is about an innocent little girl being punished due to intolerance that prevails in society.
It would be great if you could take your “Separation issues” somewhere else.