A United Defence

United Against the National Post

One for all and all for one.  Close ranks.  Deny responsibility or any whiff of intention.  Simply put, the matter is a non-issue.  Accidents happen.  The curriculum content was taken for granted.  Some of the statements simply overlooked.  They've been revoked, removed, vanished.  Therefore, they never existed.  Decades of teaching children rabidly anti-Semitic lessons with the use of those same passages included in the texts also never occurred.

"...Once they found the book, you know, published by authors in Iran, immediately now you know the attempt has been by that newspaper to connect the curriculum to that foreign government, the madrassa to that government and the jamaat (assembly) to that government, which is absolutely baseless..."

Well, there it is.  Baseless.  Base insinuation, a crusade launched by a newspaper of ill-repute, a national publication that finds un-noteworthy items of occurrences within society and then has the unmitigated gall to publish such unsavoury details that have the effect of casting a dim, censorious light of righteous indignation over the civility and Canadian-ness of a segment of society.

Life can be so irritatingly unfair.  Conflating the values of the East End Madrassah in teaching Muslim-Canadian children universal values contained in Islamic precepts, with that of the Islamic Republic of Iran.  Happenstance, simply incidental that the passages on the school's website were excerpted  from two books published by Iranian foundations controlled by the Republic of Iran. 

And Imam Sayed Muhammad Rizvi, the East End Madrassah Guidance Alim, feels the matter has been gracefully concluded.  With a sincere apology, and an assurance that the school's teaching materials will now be reviewed.  Which needn't have happened at all ... "there is one newspaper in Canada which has its own, you know, agenda, more on the right-wing side.  You know, they wouldn't let it go."

Oh.  Oh, dear, they are scoundrels of the first order, that newspaper.

"Our curriculum is not intended to promote hatred towards any individual or group of people, rather the children are taught to respect and value other faiths, beliefs and to uphold Canada's basic values of decency and tolerance", the wholesome message issued from the madrassa.  The passages in question, referring to "treacherous Jews" had been erroneously included on the website.

The Prophet Muhammad: A Brief Biography, published by the Al Balagh Foundation in Tehran, the source of a number of the passages.  And A Glance at the Life of the Holy Prophet of Islam, published by the New York-based Mostazafan Foundation, revealed by the FBI as a front organization controlled by the Iranian regime, the other resource utilized by the school curriculum.

That the East end Madrassah, one of three such schools with links to the Islamic Shia Ithna Asheri Jamaat which years ago insisted the Ontario government apologize for hosting Salmon Rushdie, (whom Iran's revolutionary Grand Ayatollah issued a fatwah against) is another inconvenience.  A recent sermon that Imam Rizvi posted online made reference to Israel "hyping the whole world up" against Iran's nuclear program.

The East End Madrassah refers to a 'failure' within its internal vigilance, responsible for unauthorized content to be included in their textbook through lack of appropriate review.  "We are committed to improve the system to ensure that such mistakes are not repeated." 

And it only took four decades.

Imam Rizvi emphasized that his centre remained an active member of the MOSAIC Interfaith Group, hosting visits by non-Muslims to encourage greater understanding of Islam.  "Therefore, while the revelation of the existence of inappropriate language used in the material on the East End Madrassah website is hurtful to the Jewish community, and an unreserved apology has been offered to them, it was also hurtful to us because we sense that this may have disappointed our fellow citizens who have known us and what we stand for."

It certainly might raise the thought that it has been unknown exactly what they stand for.  How can such material be in active use to motivate children to think and react in a certain manner inimical to Canadian values of equality and trust, and used over the lengthy course of the school's existence, without once coming to the vigilant attention of those who originally included it?

Call it unauthorized if you will, but it was originally authorized, and used repeatedly and nothing amiss seen in its place in the educational canon of impressionable children.