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| Great White North |
| Quebec orders prayer site for Muslims |
| 2006-03-24 |
| parlé ummah? MONTREAL—The Quebec Human Rights Commission says a university-affiliated institution should try to find reasonable accommodation where its Muslim students can pray. Some students at the Ecole de Technologie Supérieure, affiliated with the Université du Québec, complained they had to pray in the stairwell. The students want the school to build a separate prayer room because they are tired of kneeling on prayer mats. awwwww, cabeza pounding on concrete builds character A commission spokesman says the college has a responsibility to offer reasonable prayer accommodation to the Muslim students but is not obliged to offer space that is exclusive to them. up ur upzilla Marc-André Dowd, the commission's interim president, said a multi-faith chapel or classrooms are possibilities. The school's "secular format doesn't exempt it from its obligation to reasonably accommodate its Muslim students," he told a news conference. The complaint was launched on behalf of 113 students. The commission also ruled that pictograph signs prohibiting the washing of feet in the school's sinks wasn't discriminatory against Muslims, who must perform the ritual. Witnesses testified that it's acceptable for a person to simply pass his wet hands over his feet. |
| Posted by:Floluns Gleagum4283 |
| #4 Why? All the other religious groups manage to pay their own damned way, why can't Muslims? I suspect that this university already does provide space for Catholic students. If it does then other religious groups have a valid point in demanding some sort of suitable space. Keep in mind that Canada has two educational systems at the elementary and secondary level: the Catholic school board, and the public school board. Both are publicly funded. The Catholic school board hasn't yet seen this sort of controversy because obviously not many Muslims go to Catholic schools. At the college level, however, it is possible to see Muslim students at publicly funded, traditionally Catholic institutions. So the college system will always be at the front lines of these type of cultural clashes. In the interest of fairness, equality and what have you, colleges and universities will usually bend over backwards to accomodate students of various religions. |
| Posted by: Rafael 2006-03-24 14:14 |
| #3 Well, maybe there's a groundskeeper shed with a hose outside that they could use? |
| Posted by: Desert Blondie 2006-03-24 08:14 |
| #2 A commission spokesman says the college has a responsibility to offer reasonable prayer accommodation to the Muslim students... Why? All the other religious groups manage to pay their own damned way, why can't Muslims? |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2006-03-24 07:34 |
| #1 Unless we stop this piecemeal Shariazation, this crap will come to your plant, your office, your school, etc It won't come to your liquor store, because these won't exist in the near future. |
| Posted by: Listen to Dogs 2006-03-24 05:10 |