A British school has been blasted for dropping Judaism from its core religious classes in favor of focusing on teaching Islam to “combat the rise in Islamophobia.”
Foundry Lane Primary School in Shirley, England announced during a syllabus presentation at an Advisory Council for Religious Education meeting that it will scrap lessons on Judaism in favour of additional class time teaching about Islam, starting in September, Yahoo News reported.
The school claimed that the decision was made because it had no Jewish students or teachers.
“We do not have any Jewish students or teachers in our school. We have a focus on teaching Islam to try to combat the rise in Islamophobia,” said a school official at the meeting.
The decision was denounced by a Jewish advocacy organization who said it was the exact opposite of what was needed to combat a dangerous increase in antisemitism in the UK.
The Board of Deputies said in a statement that educating children about Judaism was the best way to fight antisemitism.
“Children learning about the faith of those who do not attend their school or live in their area is vitally important. If they never come across anyone Jewish and are not educated about Jewish faith and practice, they may develop false ideas and prejudices which may then affect their beliefs and even behaviours later in life,” it said.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)