Kids told to write ‘Allah is God’

“Angry parents have blasted a teacher for telling ten-year-olds to copy a Muslim prayer saying ‘There is no God but Allah’. Helen Green is said to have picked the Muslim call to prayer as HAND-WRITING practice. It includes the lines ‘Allah is the greatest’ and ‘I bear witness that there is no God but Allah’.

“Pupil Billy Darbyshire’s stepmum Hayley Clayton said: ‘The explanation was that the children were learning about Islam in RE. But this was like he was taking an oath. A Muslim child would never be asked to write a Bible passage. Why didn’t she choose a passage from a normal story book to teach handwriting?’ Hayley, 23, said Mrs Green – deputy head of Newlands Primary School in Wakefield, West Yorks – had acknowledged it was a ‘sensitive issue’ because three of the 7/7 suicide bombers came from Leeds, 15 miles away.”

Sun, 6 August 2007