Memorizing the Koran Verse by Verse

A small school in Flushing, Queens, New York, run by Muslims, is teaching the Koran.The students go from 8AM until 5PM, in the prayer room of a Mosque, to memorize the Koran verse by verse. The students take time off from their regular school studies, possibly 2 to 3 years, in order to accomplish this task.

What is wrong with this picture? While other religious-run schools in New York are to give 'substantially equivalent instruction to that of public schools, this Muslim-run school is not. According to city and state officials, they probably are going against the laws of New York.

“This is very much influenced by traditions back home,” said Imam Shamsi Ali, director of the Jamaica Muslim Center in Queens, which started its own memorization school several years ago. He envisions the children in the school becoming not just religious leaders but doctors, lawyers and engineers, helping to bridge the gap between the Muslim world and American society. “We want them to be leaders in all different kinds of roles.

”But this level of devotion to Islam has a way of causing suspicion these days. While parents whose children are in the schools said they were proud of them, they also worry about how they will be perceived.

Dr. Fauzia Syed-Khan, an endocrinologist in Astoria, Queens, and a Pakistani immigrant whose sons, Tariq and Bilal, both studied at the Muslim Center’s memorization school, said she did not talk about the program with co-workers.

Linked at Conservative Cat
Church and State

HT: Betsy's Page

Technorati Tags: School, Mosque, Koran