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British Civics Class Asks, What Would Muhammad Do?

[New York Times] Jane Perlez - There is something new in Britain's mosques: a government-financed effort to teach basic citizenship issues in a special curriculum, written by a Bradford teacher, Sajid Hussain, 34, who holds a degree from Oxford. It is intended to reach students who might be vulnerable to Islamic extremism. The British government hopes that such civics classes, which use the Koran to answer questions about daily life, will replace the sometimes hard-core religious lessons taught in many mosques across the land. An estimated 100,000 school-age Muslim children attend religious classes held at mosques in Britain daily. Muslim students "understand that it's wrong to go out and commit suicide bombings," Hussain said. "But some got really confused when you put jihad next to it. Jihad has got a sacred context, so things that were unacceptable became acceptable. We had to dig down to defuse the misconception."
2007-08-22 01:00:00
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