Friday, August 24, 2007

Faith-based school funding a justice issue

by Rev. Graham Scott from The Welland Tribune

There are two major problems with funding faith-based education. The first problem is the funding of Islamic schools, because Islam does not distinguish between church and state and so Sharia law prevails in many Islamic states.I believe that Premier Dalton McGuinty was right to disallow the introduction of Sharia law into Ontario family law. Moreover, I believe the Wahhabist school of Islam based in Saudi Arabia is dangerous for democracy. The Muwafaq (Blessed Relief) Foundation was named by the U.S. Treasury Department as "an al-Qaida front that receives funding from wealthy Saudi businessmen." Funding a Wahhabist Islamic school could breed home-grown terrorism in Ontario. But this problem can be solved by enacting regulations that no school which has received or receives any foreign funding may receive any Ontario funding, and that no school whose faith requires the replacement of the Canadian constitution by its own religious law may receive any Ontario funding.

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