Brisbane Islamic college reviews national anthem ban
Article from:
The Courier-MailJames O'Loan
December 05, 2008 11:32am
A BRISBANE school that banned the national anthem at assemblies says it will review the policy and that it loves the values embodied in the song.
The review comes after The Courier-Mail revealed the school had banned the national anthem at assemblies and sacked the teacher who asked for it to be played.
Today, school trustee Keysar Trad - who yesterday said he was unaware of the anthem ban - said news the anthem was not played regularly at school assemblies came as a shock.
Mr Trad said the anthem was performed at every major school function but was removed from daily assemblies by the principal without the endorsement of the school board.
Trustees and the board would meet to discuss performing the anthem at every school assembly, he said.
"My personal recommendation is that it be performed at every assembly," he said.
Mr Trad said the students were proud to sing the anthem and were known locally for their performance of it.
"Personally, I love the content because it's full of these wonderful words which reflect values that we all share," he said.
The Courier-Mail today revealed Australian International Islamic College teacher Pravin Chand was sacked in November, four months after his proposal for students to sing Advance Australia Fair was ruled to be against the "Islamic view and ethos".
A memo sent to teachers at the Durack school in July and obtained by The Courier-Mail, also said "the singing of the anthem will be put on hold".
The revelations follow an outcry on the Gold Coast this week at a plan by the same college to open another campus at Carrara. A vocal crowd draped in Australian flags accused the college of promoting segregation, anti-Australian values and even terrorism.
Muslim leaders slammed the protests as "un-Australian" and claimed religion should not be used as a reason to protest against a school.
School chairman Imam Abdul Quddoos Azhari yesterday denied the anthem ban and said students sang it "at every function".
But Mr Chand, whose version of events was backed by a second teacher, said he had not heard the anthem once this year.
"No national anthem to me means no integration with Australian kids," Mr Chand said. "Western values (at the school) are a no-no.
"It's like a paramilitary camp that place."
Mr Chand's employment was terminated by the college board last month on the grounds he was "not fitting into the school's ethos".
Outgoing principal Azroul Liza Khalid, who started at the school in July, said she had not heard the anthem once at assembly, although it was played two or three other times.
Ms Khalid said she was told by a board member not to play the anthem or any songs on Friday because it was a holy day. In July, school assembly day was moved from Monday to Friday.
A spokeswoman for Education Minister Rod Welford indicated it was unlikely a public school had banned the national anthem.
"It's not compulsory for schools to play the national anthem," she said. "There's an expectation it would be played on formal occasions when the Australian flag is being raised."
A Catholic education spokesman said: "I'm absolutely confident that no Catholic school has ever banned the playing of the national anthem and never will."
School trustee Keysar Trad and Imam Quddoos yesterday said they had not heard of the ban and supported the playing of the anthem at future assemblies.
The future of the proposed 60-studentl college at Carrara will be decided by Gold Coast City Council next year.
Aussie Aussie Aussie! (
Oi! Oi! Oi!).
I've never understood this concept of
integration. Isn't one of the thing about living in the West the right to
freedom of thought? Goths don't have to
integrate, nor punks, hippies, swingers or any of those alternative subcultures. Marxists never had their
books banned - not even revolutionary socialists. I remember
Socialist Worker used to always have a section in their paper entitled "What We Believe" where they spoke about elections being useless and revolution being the only way. And no one ever tries to coerce
Christian nutjobs into integrating. This is, of course, because Islam is largely thought of as a 'foreign affair' in the West - that's why it's easy to talk about
limiting Muslim immigration for example.
Muslim bashing started with the
odious former government; the same ones who were busy helping in the war of terror overseas while banning
kratom and
salvia at home. Plants don't kill people, bombs do but apparently the latter's OK and the former's criminal. It's funny I feel I can dissent more now that I'm a murtad than I could when I was a Muslim because some arsehole will accuse a dissenting Muslim of not integrating, or worse - some fifth columnist exercising
taqiyyah.
Are Muslims not allowed to dissent? I say
fuck the national anthem and unlike most people I know both verses so there
Topic: Brisbane Islamic college reviews national anthem ban