School’s Muslim prayer sessions criticized

The Toronto District School Board has come under fire this week for allowing Muslim students to hold prayer sessions at a school in Flemingdon Park.

A Hindu group filed complaints with the board about the Friday prayer services, which have been held inside a cafeteria at Valley Park Middle School for the past three years.

The school doesn’t run or pay for the noon-hour service. It’s operated by members of the Valley Park community.

Jim Spyropoulous, superintendent of inclusive schools for the board, said the school and parents came up with an arrangement that allowed the more than 300 students to pray without having to go to a mosque and miss classes, the Globe and Mail reported.

The TDSB defended its position, saying it’s simply trying to accommodate the religious beliefs of its many Muslim students, as mandated by the Ontario Human Rights Code.

It said the issue is not one about religion in schools but about religious accommodation.

“We have a predominantly Muslim population in the student body, so the parent’s were asking for a space where we can provide for Friday prayers,” said board trustee, Shaun Chen.
 
The Canadian Hindu Advocacy group, which took up the issue after receiving complaints from Hindu parents whose children attend Valley Park, has said it will protest outside the school when classes begin in the fall until the noon-hour practice is abolished.

“We’ll bring several hundred people down there to picket and protest in front of the school while these prayers are going on,” vowed the group’s director, Ron Banerjee.

Ebrahim Shekih is a Friday prayer volunteer.  He says since the prayers don’t take place during class time, it shouldn’t be a problem.

“It’s done at the noon time when school classes are not in progress, so I’m not sure what the argument is about.”

With files from The Canadian Press