Student quits high school choir over Islamic song

[Lamnidae]

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/02/15...est=latestnews

early reporting from fox - you have been forewarned.... but hey, it's not like you'd probably see this on the other MSM outlets.

My big thing is the double standard when it comes to religion in the schools/classroom, such as a moment for silent prayer/meditation at football games (which has been argued against by athiests). Either ban EVERYTHING or leave it alone.
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A Colorado high school student quit the school choir after an Islamic song containing the lyric "there is no other truth except Allah" made it into the repertoire.

James Harper, a senior at Grand Junction High School in Grand Junction, put his objection to singing "Zikr," a song written by Indian composer A.R. Rahman, in an email to Mesa County School District 51 officials. When the school stood by choir director Marcia Wieland's selection, Harper quit.



"I don’t want to come across as a bigot or a racist, but I really don’t feel it is appropriate for students in a public high school to be singing an Islamic worship song,” Harper told KREX-TV. "This is worshipping another God, and even worshipping another prophet ... I think there would be a lot of outrage if we made a Muslim choir say Jesus Christ is the only truth."

But district spokesman Jeff Kirtland defended the decision to include the song.

"Choral music is often devoted to religious themes. ... This is not a case where the school is endorsing or promoting any particular religion or other non-educational agenda. The song was chosen because its rhythms and other qualities would provide an opportunity to exhibit the musical talent and skills of the group in competition, not because of its religious message or lyrics," Kirtland told FoxNews.com in an email while noting that the choir "is a voluntary, after-school activity."

"Students are not required to participate, and receive no academic credit for doing so," he said.

At an upcoming concert, the choir is scheduled to sing an Irish folk song and an Christian song titled "Prayer of the Children," in addition to the song by Rahman.

"The teacher consulted with students and asked each of them to review an online performance of the selection with their parents before making the decision to perform the piece," Kirtland said, and members who object to the religious content of musical selections aren't required to sing them.

Rahman, who has sold hundreds of millions of records and is well-known in his homeland, has said the song is not intended for a worship ceremony. He told FoxNews.com in a written statement that the song, composed for the move "Bose, the Forgotten Hero," is about "self-healing and spirituality."

"It is unfortunate that the student in Colorado misinterpreted the intention of the song," Rahman said. "I have long celebrated the commonalities of humanity and try to share and receive things in this way. While I respect his decision for opting out, this incident is an example of why we need further cultural education through music.”

The song is written in Urdu, but one verse translates to "There is no truth except Allah" and "Allah is the only eternal and immortal." Although the choir sang the original version, Wieland distributed translated lyrics.

Grand Junction High School Principal Jon Bilbo referred questions to Kirtland.

FoxNews.com's Joshua Rhett Miller contributed to this story.

[pauldun170]

On the itouch and getting ready for dinner/kids to bed/off to gym. Will try to dig and defoxify later tonight

[EpyonXero]

Allah means God.

[fatbuckRTO]

Originally Posted by EpyonXero

Allah means God.

It means the Muslim god. You don't hear "Elohim" and think maybe someone is talking about Buddhism.

Sounds like the choir teacher did everything she could to allow for religious sensibilities, though. If kids were allowed to opt out of any of the religious songs, as the article states, I don't see the problem.

I also don't see the problem if James Harper wants to quit choir.

Big non-story, as far as I can tell.

[EpyonXero]

Originally Posted by fatbuckRTO

It means the Muslim god. You don't hear "Elohim" and think maybe someone is talking about Buddhism.

If youre speaking Hebrew you might use elohim to refer to any god or gods, pagan or not. If youre speaking Arabic, 'Allah' means God with a capital G, the one god, and according to the Koran theres only one god and hes same god as the god of the Jews and Christians. In fact Arabic speaking jews and Christians call god 'Allah'.

[fatbuckRTO]

Originally Posted by EpyonXero

If youre speaking Hebrew you might use elohim to refer to any god or gods, pagan or not. If youre speaking Arabic, 'Allah' means God with a capital G, the one god, and according to the Koran theres only one god and hes same god as the god of the Jews and Christians. In fact Arabic speaking jews and Christians call god 'Allah'.

Yet somehow, when speaking English, Jews worship God, Christians worship Christ, and Muslims still worship Allah. I understand that Mohammed ripped off the Jews and the Christians, right down to claiming the angel Gabriel as his primary messenger. Doesn't mean they are the same gods. The Jewish god has yet to send a messiah, and pretty much only cares about ethnic Jews. The Christian god sent "himself" as a messiah 2000 years ago. The Muslim god has no need for messiahs, I guess Mohammed was blessing enough.

People like to say "they are the same God" or "Muslims worship the same God as 'we' do" as a means of defusing enmity among the three religions. But doing so ignores the reasons for that enmity. They are separate religions, separate stories with markedly different "endings," and separate gods.

That said, the song was in Urdu. It was a reference to the Muslim god. And I still don't care that James Harper wants to quit choir over it. Join a church choir if it means that much to you, Jimbo.

[Trip]

Originally Posted by fatbuckRTO

Yet somehow, when speaking English, Jews worship God, Christians worship Christ, and Muslims still worship Allah. I understand that Mohammed ripped off the Jews and the Christians, right down to claiming the angel Gabriel as his primary messenger. Doesn't mean they are the same gods. The Jewish god has yet to send a messiah, and pretty much only cares about ethnic Jews. The Christian god sent a messiah 2000 years ago. The Muslim god has no need for messiahs, Mohammed was blessing enough.

People like to say "they are the same God" or "Muslims worship the same God as 'we' do" as a means of defusing enmity among the three religions. But doing so ignores the reasons for that enmity. They are separate religions, separate stories with markedly different "endings," and separate gods.

That said, the song was in Urdu. It was a reference to the Muslim god. And I still don't care that James Harper wants to quit choir over it. Join a church choir if it means that much to you, Jimbo.

Unfortunately for you, the story of this God all originates from the same place, therefore educational wise, it is the same God.
It would be like another religion using Zeus. Same entity, just confused about how the story progressed. It's not even a different timeline. Same timelines, some people just kept building onto the story.

I like how you said the Christians got ripped off by the Muslims, but you go on to make excuses for the Christians ripping off the Jews. LOLz, bias ftl.

[Papa_Complex]

Originally Posted by fatbuckRTO

Yet somehow, when speaking English, Jews worship God, Christians worship Christ, and Muslims still worship Allah. I understand that Mohammed ripped off the Jews and the Christians, right down to claiming the angel Gabriel as his primary messenger. Doesn't mean they are the same gods. The Jewish god has yet to send a messiah, and pretty much only cares about ethnic Jews. The Christian god sent "himself" as a messiah 2000 years ago. The Muslim god has no need for messiahs, I guess Mohammed was blessing enough.

People like to say "they are the same God" or "Muslims worship the same God as 'we' do" as a means of defusing enmity among the three religions. But doing so ignores the reasons for that enmity. They are separate religions, separate stories with markedly different "endings," and separate gods.

That said, the song was in Urdu. It was a reference to the Muslim god. And I still don't care that James Harper wants to quit choir over it. Join a church choir if it means that much to you, Jimbo.

Messiahs? No. Prophets? Yes.

Christians and Jews are referred to as "People of the Book." The Old Testament seems to be universal, to religions born in that area.

Originally Posted by derf

I know where to put my money

I see that some devout Norse god worshiper finally realized that the picture is of Thor, not Odin, and fixed the caption

[EpyonXero]

Originally Posted by fatbuckRTO

Yet somehow, when speaking English, Jews worship God, Christians worship Christ, and Muslims still worship Allah. I understand that Mohammed ripped off the Jews and the Christians, right down to claiming the angel Gabriel as his primary messenger. Doesn't mean they are the same gods. The Jewish god has yet to send a messiah, and pretty much only cares about ethnic Jews. The Christian god sent "himself" as a messiah 2000 years ago. The Muslim god has no need for messiahs, I guess Mohammed was blessing enough.

People like to say "they are the same God" or "Muslims worship the same God as 'we' do" as a means of defusing enmity among the three religions. But doing so ignores the reasons for that enmity. They are separate religions, separate stories with markedly different "endings," and separate gods.

That said, the song was in Urdu. It was a reference to the Muslim god. And I still don't care that James Harper wants to quit choir over it. Join a church choir if it means that much to you, Jimbo.

The New Testament explicitly says that the God of Jesus is the same God of Abraham. The Koran says the same thing, thats my point. Whether or not people decide that they want their own custom god that isnt associated with those other people, whoever they may be, is irrelevant to the historical facts.

[pauldun170]

The kid can go join the table of the kid that quit over Ave Maria.