| An Augment Against the Public Funding of Madrassas On September 4, 2007, Steve Paikin of TV Ontario hosted a debate on full-funding for faith-based schools. In support of full-funding: M. D. Khalid director at the Islamic Society of North America Canada and Barbara Bierman, provincial spokesperson for Parents for Educational Choice. Against: Robert Fulford, Toronto author, journalist, broadcaster and Farzana Hassan, President of the Muslim Canadian Congress (not to be confused with the conservative Canadian Islamic Congress). The Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC) is against using taxpayer dollars to pay for any type of faith-based schooling. Mr. Fulford did get Ms. Bierman too admit, in a round-about sort of way, that her organization saw the increased funding for Christian faith-based schools promised by John Tory as more money to challenge Darwin and advance the cause of creationists. The most compelling argument against full-funding for all religious schools was, in my opinion, made by Farzana Hassan of the Muslim Canadian Congress. At the risk of putting words into the mouth of the President of the MCC, Ms. Hassan was puzzled that the government would fund schools that teach children that little boys are superior to little girls. -------------------------- A Compromise Since the aircraft became a vehicle of choice for delivering death and destruction, its elimination prior to or during any armed conflict is a must if you hope to prevail against your enemy while avoiding unnecessary massive civilian and military deaths. What do you do when the bomb delivery system of choice is not aircrafts or missiles, but human beings and the factories where these systems are manufactured are religious schools? Pakistan, according to International Crisis Group, an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organization committed to preventing and resolving deadly conflict, is home to an estimated 10,430 madrassas, Islamic religious schools. That question of whether madrassas should be off limits when it comes to stopping the manufacture of human bombs is taking on a new urgency, in Afghanistan in particular where most of the young human bombs that are indiscriminately killing civilians and the soldiers sent to protect them are the product of madrassas. It is unthinkable to bomb the world-wide network of Saudi Arabia funded madrassas which indoctrinate the young in the violent and hate-filled Wahhabi theology and from which the Taliban originates. To avoid the unthinkable, how about a non-proliferation agreement against the funding of a religious education that advocates violence and/or instill in its students a disregard for human life, their own and that of others. This type of agreement would stop countries like Saudi Arabia from exporting a destructive intolerant ideology to other countries; places like Pakistan where Wahhabi-inspired zealots are tearing the country apart and bringing death and destruction to its neighbour Afghanistan. Bernard Payeur
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