Students at an Italian School Told to Pretend to Be Muslims in Catholic Religion Class
A school in Milan asks 13- and 14-year-old students to explain the pillars of islam as if they were practising muslims.
Illustrative image // AI
[social-share align=»right» style=»button» mobile_app=»desktop»]
[social-share align=»center» style=»icon» mobile_app=»mobile»]
A school in Tribiano (Milan) has set its third-year secondary school students an exercise which consists of pretending to be practising muslims during Catholic religion lessons. Students must explain the five pillars of islam in the first person, as if they professed this religion, and present their work in formats such as a personal diary, Instagram or TikTok posts and WhatsApp voice messages. The activity has prompted a protest from a father, who has announced that he will request an exemption from the subject for his daughter, as reported on 5 November by the italian newspaper Free Daily.
The Italian newspaper has published the instructions for the assignment, entitled “The five pillars of islam”. What makes the activity distinctive is that it does not merely ask for research into the muslim religion, but requires students to assume the identity of a believer in a fictional exercise and explain their religious obligations as if they were their own.
Showing respect for islam
The instructions state that students must work in groups of three or four. Each team is assigned one of the five pillars of islam and must present it creatively, “explaining it in the first person, as if you were practising muslims”.
The objectives of the activity are to understand the relevant pillar correctly and to “show respect for the islamic religion”. The published instructions do not state that students must practise religious rituals, but that they must play the role of practising muslims to complete the assignment.
Lessons on islam in catholic religion class
The controversy has reached the European Parliament, where League MEPs Silvia Sardone and Anna Maria Cisint have publicly criticised the activity. Sardone has complained that Italian schools have gone from removing crucifixes from classrooms to promoting “a kind of indoctrination into islam”. “We have always maintained that our identity and our culture must be protected. However, sometimes they are almost censored in schools,” Sardone told Free Daily.
The father who complained about the activity also expressed his opposition in comments to the same newspaper. “I refuse to let my daughter do this exercise because she goes to school to learn about Christianity, not to identify with a muslim”, he said. “Respecting religions is fine, but this is madness,” he added before concluding with an ironic remark: “Then I’ll send her to school in a burqa.”
MEP Anna Maria Cisint has pointed directly to the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI): “After all, it was the Italian Episcopal Conference itself that prepared the worksheets for teaching islam in schools”. Cisint’s criticism refers to a recent initiative by the Italian bishops: the Episcopal Conference has produced eleven worksheets on islam, one of which presents the Qur’an as the “revealed word of God”. Bishop Gaetano Castello confirmed on 21 October that “hundreds of teachers have welcomed these worksheets and are using them with their pupils.”
The project has received the public support of Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, president of the Italian Episcopal Conference, who has defended these materials as a “great antidote to violence and ignorance”. Its official presentation, held in Rome on 21 October, preceded the controversy in Tribiano by a few weeks. There, the teaching of islam has moved from teaching materials to an exercise in which pupils must put themselves in the shoes of practising muslims.
More Islam in Italy
Italian bishops promote the Qur’an in schools as the “revealed word of God”
Allah’s law now has a sharia court in Italy
Italy bans burqa and niqab but only in schools
Sharia arrives at Rome's swimming pools with women-only lanes
Muslims take an Italian MEP to court for filming a woman in a burqa in the street
Police capture a muslim follower of Islamic State in his cave in Barcelona’s Raval neighborhood
British school forces six-year-olds to wear hijabs during Islam class
Figure of Jesus Christ beheaded and Arabic graffiti left on a monument to fallen British soldiers
Teenagers interrupt a mass in Vienna shouting “Allahu Akbar”
The new separatist government of Quebec is determined to ban the hijab in primary schools.
Several UK police forces warn that celebrating Halloween may upset Muslims
A new Barcelona contract imposes the halal menu on social services
Italian bishops promote the Qur’an in schools as the “revealed word of God”
Austria removes Muslim police trainee who refused to work with men
A Muslim is hunted down in Tarragona and another in Vilafranca del Penedès for jihadist activity.
Allah’s law now has a sharia court in Italy
The Halal Institute of the Spanish Islamic Council rejects stunning chickens before slaughter
Phrase of the Week
Image of the Week
-Don't you have cousins?