A R C H I V E S
Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| Letter to the Public School Teacher |
|---|
| Kathy |
| 09/02/03 at 11:46:45 |
| [slm] Here is the annual letter: To: Teacher, Aide, Art Teacher, Music Teacher, Cafeteria Monitor, cc: Principal Here is a guide to my son's religiously - mandated practices as a Muslim. I have covered a little of each area to help you understand my son more. This is not an official guide for all Muslims. Some families have stricter guidelines, while others are more lenient. It is a letter I have sent out to each teacher each year. Could you please see that the above staff receive this letter? Dr. Green also appreciates a copy. Please feel free to call me with any questions. Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag: Islam discourages acts of reverence to anyone or anything but God. Therefore my son does not pledge allegiance to a flag. This, however, should not be taken as a sign of disrespect to the symbol of our nation. He will not participate by saying the words, but he can stand in respect of his country. Holidays: He may be exposed to the holidays the school celebrates, but he is not allowed to celebrate them. These include: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, St. Valentines Day, St. Patrick Day, Easter, Please contact me regarding any celebrations so that we can offer a suitable alternative for him. Dietary requirements: -No pork or pork by products. Below i have listed some examples. Some objectionable foods items include: bacon, pepperoni, sausage, and hot dogs containing pork. Animal Shortening- in some breads, cookies, cakes, donuts...Vegetable shortening is acceptable. Gelatin- in Jell-O, candies, marshmallows. Lard- in any product. He is very sensitive about this at lunch time. Music: Ali is not allowed to sing holiday songs. When Christmas time is approaching I will pull him from music class. Also if there is any involvement with instruments, he can only use drums. Art: Muslims are not allowed to draw or make images. You will see him placing an “X” over the picture of animals and people, if he is required to draw them for educational purposes. This is part of his Islamic teachings. He is not allowed to make life like objects. Gender Relations: Muslim men and women observe personal modesty. Ali may be reluctant to touch girls, for example in a duck, duck goose type game. He will be reluctant to shake a woman’s hand, or touch a girl. Skullcap: Muslim men often wear a small head covering, called a kufi. He sometimes wears one. Vocabulary: Allah- You will probably hear him saying this. It is Arabic for God. Bismillah - He will say this before eating. It means "in the name of God"(it attributes all thanks to God for his food) Humdulillah- Praise be to God- He will say this when he sneezes, and at other times. Fasting: This is the Islamic month of Ramadan. Observing the Ramadan fast means refraining from eating and drinking from the break of dawn to sunset. This will begin toward the end of October. Fasting is not required until children reach puberty. Still, he wants to experiment with fasting. This will help him learn self-restraint and it is a time for him to empathize and reflect on those less fortunate than him and appreciate what one has. We do not expect him to fast but will support him if he chooses to. Daily Prayer: Muslims prayer at various times of the day. They are obligatory prayers which need to be completed by certain times. When the daylight savings time changes, Ali will need to pray around noon. Dr. Green has previously given the Muslim children a spot on the back stage. I will contact you as the time approaches. Friday Prayer: Friday is the day for congregational prayer, called Jumm’ah. The prayer begins at 1:00 and ends around 1:45 at the masjid. I pick up Ali about 12:45. Generally the other Muslim Kids in the class come with us. Their parents will send you a note. Please call me or send home the work he will miss every Friday afternoon. Muslim Holidays: The two major Muslim celebrations are called Eid. I will write you a note as the holidays approach. He will be taking off at least one day. Culturally they usually take three days to celebrate. I will contact you to see if this is possible when the time is nearer. I do not expect that he should be given an absent mark on this day- because he will be ful-filling a religious obligation. I am available to come and teach the class about our holidays. You may want to ask Ali’s previous teachers about the puppet show I have done for the kids. As the well publicized 9/11 anniversary approaches, if you need me, who am a practicing Muslim, I am available. Also if you need a volunteer/ help at any time- call me! |
| 09/02/03 at 11:47:46 |
| Kathy |
| Re: Letter to the Public School Teacher |
|---|
| Moe_D |
| 09/08/03 at 23:30:56 |
| Here is an article i saw thought it might be helpful regarding the halal haram food issue. Eating Halal at School Eating Halal here in North America can be a challenge for many adults, but it is even more of a challenge for Muslim children. As schools re-open for yet another school year, eat-halal.com's founder and editor takes a quick look at the issue of eating Halal while at school. It’s that time of the year again when we begin sending off our little ones to school. While attendance at Islamic schools is slowly and slowly creeping up, the fact of the matter remains that most Muslim children still attend public schools. As someone who has attended public schools here in Canada, I can tell you that making sure our children eat Halal while they’re at school is something that requires our attention. If we are to pass on Islamic values such as the importance of eating Halal to our children, we must begin at an early age. In most public elementary schools, parties are usually held and food is brought in every once in a while to celebrate various events such as a teacher or student’s birthday, holidays (such as Halloween and Christmas), and other events. The easy way around this situation is to instruct our children not to eat anything at school that they haven’t taken from home. However, this can be tough for young children, especially since they’ll be seeing their peers enjoying the food and they won’t be able to take part in it. One possible solution to this and other similar situations is to sensitize the teacher about Islamic dietary guidelines. This can be done easily with the “Basic Food Guidelines for Muslims” sheet available at eat-halal.com/kids. If that doesn’t help, parents can request their child’s teacher to tell them of any parties beforehand, so that the child can be sent with Halal food for him or herself on the day of the party. Or as in my case when I was young, parents can simply keep their child home on the day of the party. Muslim children should be instructed not to buy foods and consumables from school cafeterias and corner stores unless they are sure that it is Halal. It’s always best to pack a lunch and snack(s) for our children, so they don’t need to look elsewhere for food while they’re gone to school. Children should be discouraged from exchanging and asking for foods from others, and should be taught to politely refuse food given to them by others, when they’re not sure if it’s Halal or Haram. It may seem rare that young children would care about Halal and Haram, but I have seen that even the slightest of guidance can make a difference. When my niece was in pre-school, she was once offered some chicken, but she turned it down, saying “no, I only eat Urdu chicken” (Urdu being her term for Zabihah). If you already haven’t, I strongly encourage you to introduce your child to Halal food basics with the lessons and activities at eat-halal.com/kids. Teaching our kids what’s right and what’s wrong is our responsibility. Let’s try our best to live up to the responsibility, and remember, the earlier we begin, the more fruitful the result. Concerns, ideas, and suggestions can all be sent directly to the editor at editor@eat-halal.com. |
| Re: Letter to the Public School Teacher |
|---|
| Chris |
| 09/09/03 at 12:02:11 |
| Salaam When I first heard about this little problem (this was back in the bad old days) my first thought was 'let them eat veggie food' (extra credit if you know where that came from), and even now I think its a pretty god solution. Its much simpler to ban all meat than explain complicated Halai rules to people, who may consider that you're making lots of fuss about nothing. (Which in a very real sense you are, as intentions are far more important than actions.) Just my two pennies Chris/Adam |
| Re: Letter to the Public School Teacher |
|---|
| WhiteSomali |
| 09/09/03 at 12:15:59 |
| [slm] [QUOTE] Which in a very real sense you are...[/QUOTE] Bro, sorry but I couldn't disagree more with this statement. This is hardly making a fuss about nothing. My parents won't buy Halal meat so I have to eat as little of it as possible unless I can buy lunch at a Halal store or whatever. In Makkah before the migration to Madinah, the Sahaba would refrain from eating any meat that hadn't been slaughtered in the name of Allah. I'm not fully sure, but since the majority of Makkah were polytheists at that time, that probably meant they couldn't eat most of the meat they came across. Also, one who intends to do a good deed will get one good deed written down for themselves. One who intends to do a good deed and fulfills the deed, will have ten to seven hundred times the deed written down. Intention without action is like being "all talk." [slm] |
| Re: Letter to the Public School Teacher |
|---|
| Chris |
| 09/09/03 at 17:07:45 |
| I believe quite firmly that intentions are more important than actions. For example, we are required to make/remake wudu when we use the toliet or pass wind, but standard wudu does not touch those places, therefore, objectivly, we're still not clean. However, the intention of being clean, going through the inconveniat ritual, is our sign of clensing ourselves. Now, regarding food, we cannot garentee that our food is completly halal. We can, however, try to make it halal to the best of our ability, eating veggie food, getting halal meat, trying to supervise cooking, and so on. as this letter from my teacher shows, even the purchased food may not be what it seems. Adam [i]As-salâmu ‘alaykum wa rahmatullâh Subhanallah. In all honesty, I'm quite a bigtime chicken fan, so I was ready to waste another 59 minutes last night on the net to watch the following Panorama expose. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/3035139.stm If you don't want to watch it (and advise that you do by the way, especially at 24 minutes to 30 minutes), then basically Dutch companies are pumping chicken with 50% water to increase size etc. The problem is that they have to use 'hydrolysed proteins' otherwise known as beef and pork DNA and additives. Yes, thats pork! Whats worse is that this chicken is labelled HALAL!! And Subhanallah, the classic was that the one 'Muslim' company, 'Hassan', had the most amount of beef and pork DNA in their chicken, wa Allaahu Musta'aan. I remember someone talking about this a few weeks ago, but now when you see it with your own eyes....ajeeb. Oh and by the way, all you in Saudi, the Middle East, Asia etc etc, don't forget that Holland is exporting to ALL over the world because of its very very cheap prices. Don't feel so smug.... The only possible advice I can think of is not to buy any ready prepared foreign fillets, especially Dutch. Try and get whole chickens and do the cutting and preparing etc yourself. Ask your butcher where the chicken is coming from, be very wary of halal signs on the box, and you can check the meat itself by seeing whether it is too soft, or feels too watery. And boy, what an absolute idiot that bloke, the head of the Food Standards Agency was! And Allah knows Best. Jazâkumallâho Khayran Was-salâmu ‘alaykum wa rahmatullâh Abű ‘Eesa [/i] |
Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board |