Toronto Muslim School Teaches Jews Are ‘Crafty’
A Toronto Islamic school being investigated following a complaint that it is teaching its students that Jews are “treacherous” and comparing them to Nazis has apologized to the Jewish community.
The curriculum at the East End Madrassah, a Sunday school for Muslim children that rents space from a public school, taught boys to exercise so they are “ready for jihad,” refers to “crafty” and “treacherous” Jews and Jewish “plots,” and contrasts Islam with “the Jews and the Nazis.”
By early this week, the school had removed from its website the controversial portion of its curriculum. Later the same day, its website went offline.
The complaint was launched by Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre for Holocaust Studies in Toronto.
The school on Tuesday reportedly apologized to the Jeiwsh community and to revise its teaching materials after a careful review.
“We unreservedly apologize to the Jewish community for the unintentional offence that the item has caused,” the school said in a statement. “Our team of scholars has already undertaken to review all texts and material being used in the curriculum to ensure that our teachings are conveying the right message.”
Canada’s Criminal Code makes it unlawful to publicly and “willfully” promote hatred against any identifiable group.
The Toronto District School Board, from which the madrassah rents space, said it is cooperating with police and noted it has the authority to revoke agreements with any associated school if it is found to be promoting hatred.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO