Ashfaque Chowdhury, chairman of Britain’s Association of Muslim Schools, called for Muslim schools in the UK to teach Judaism as their second religion. Chowdhury's call followed a call from Britain's chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, for Jewish schools to teach islam.
Head Of Muslim Schools In Britain Asks His Schools To Teach Judaism
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
Ashfaque Chowdhury, chairman of Britain’s Association of Muslim Schools, called for Muslim schools in the UK to teach Judaism as their second religion, the JewishNews reported.
Chowdhury’s decision to encourage the study of Judaism followed a similar call about Islam being taught in Jewish schools issued just days earlier by the Modern Orthodox british chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis.
“We were hoping to recommend Catholicism and Judaism as we can complement the teaching by visits to each other’s schools and joint activities between students. We feel it will contribute to community cohesion, British values and interfaith relations. I also feel that amongst Abrahamic religions, Islam and Judaism are most similar,” Chowdhury told the Jewish News.
A spokesman for the Office of the Chief Rabbi calld Chowdhury’s recommendation “extremely significant.”
“We often talk about tolerance and understanding between communities as an ideal, but education is the vehicle that will get us there. It is so important that every child learns from a young age that all people are created in the image of God, no matter what their faith or ethnicity, and it is my hope that other Muslim schools will follow their lead,” the chief rabbi’s spokesman said.
Beginning this September, all British schools will be required to teach two religious faiths, at least one of which is not their own. Religious groups and their leaders, including Mirvis, lobbied against that requirement, but failed to block it. Mirvis said earlier this month that after the requirement was adopted, he decided it was an opportunity to give Jewish children the chance to learn about Islam, a “poorly understood” religion.
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