The morning after a tense meeting at the Peel school board — where a spectator tore up a Quran and others yelled Islamophobic comments — the province has issued a statement in support of the board providing space for Muslim students’ Friday prayers.Education Minister Mitzie Hunter and Michael Coteau, minister of children and youth services, said “we know that the Peel District School Board has been working closely with their students and the community for more than a decade on religious accommodation in their schools and we are pleased to see their commitment to inclusion.“… Realizing the promise of Ontario’s diversity is a continuous process grounded in actively respecting and valuing the full range of our differences.” At issue in Peel is the board providing space for Muslim students to pray as a group, on Fridays. The practice has been going on for years — as it has in some Toronto public schools — but only recently been targeted by critics by way of protest and petitions demanding the 20 minutes of group prayer, called Jummah, be banned. Critics believe it leads to segregation among students and inappropriate exposure to religion in a secular school system.At Wednesday night’s board meeting, police were present and had to clear the room after tempers flared.Chair Janet McDougald said the board is “appalled … by the anti-Muslim rhetoric and prejudice we have seen on social media, read in emails and heard first-hand at our board meetings.“It has caused some of our students to feel unsafe, to feel targeted. We must not allow hatred toward any faith group to flourish. We will not stand for that. It is not consistent with our board values, with our role as trustees, or for us as Canadians.”She said the “concerted effort to share deliberate misinformation, to counter a known legal requirement for Peel” is unacceptable.She went on to say that as a ...
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