2011 Year in Review: The controversy over Muslim prayers at a Toronto school

We never thought our story and accompanying poll on Muslim prayers in a North York school would touch such a nerve. But five months after being published it remains by far the most-read story on CityNews.ca.

In fact, the story went viral across North America with church groups urging congregants to head to CityNews.ca to vote on the contentious issue.

The prayers, which take place in the cafeteria at Valley Park Middle School, first came under scrutiny last July when a man claiming to represent a group called the Canadian Hindu Advocacy began loudly voicing his disapproval and picketing the Toronto District School Board.

“It raises lots of questions in terms of ‘Why are Muslims alone being allowed to do this?’ This is part of the Islam-ification of society,” the group’s Ron Banerjee, said.

The school began the Friday services a few years ago to prevent students from missing classes to pray at a nearby mosque. Valley Park principal Nickolas Stefanoff told CityNews all was running smoothly before the sudden media storm.

“I didn’t expect it because we had been operating for four years basically doing the same thing, and we weren’t hiding it or anything,” he stressed. “The community knew what was going on, and there were no objections or anything so it was quite shocking actually to see it come out as a [news] story.”

Those critical of the prayer sessions, which were then run by community Muslim leaders, argued that publically-funded schools weren’t the appropriate place for religious services.

The Toronto District School Board defended the decision, saying it was accommodating the school’s significant Muslim population. Approximately 80 per cent of students at the school are Muslim.

“We have a predominantly Muslim population in the student body, so the parents were asking for a space where we can provide for Friday prayers,” board trustee Shaun Chen told CityNews.

Over the summer school officials held a community meeting to address concerns, eventually agreeing that the prayers would continue with a slight modification; instead of being run by an outside imam, three male students from nearby Marc Garneau Collegiate would lead the sessions.

“One of the things that people seemed to be objecting to was the fact that an imam from a mosque was present on school property so we thought, ‘Okay well here’s something we can do,'” Stefanoff said, adding that the prayers have since continued without objection.

“They are supervised by members of the community, parents from our school community, and it’s been fine.”