By Bappa Majumdar - Reuters - WorldWide Religious News
Monday, April 03, 2006
Kolkata, India - Indian schoolgirl Julita Oraon, a devout Christian, never misses Sunday mass, but the rest of her week is spent studying Arabic and Sufi literature among other subjects at an Islamic religious school, or madrasa.
Oraon is one of tens of thousands of Hindu and Christian students in the state of West Bengal now attending such schools: in this part of India, madrasas are emerging as beacons of tolerance. While a predominantly Hindu state, a quarter of West Bengal's population of 80 million are Muslims and one percent are Christians.
After a Hindu mob destroyed a mosque in the northern holy city of Ayodhya in 1992 much of India was wracked by deadly communal riots. But in Bengal students from madrasas, both Muslims and Hindus, led processions denouncing the demolition.
"People find it difficult to believe, but our madrasas ... are reflecting modern aspirations and expectations of the community irrespective of religion," Kanti Biswas, the state's education minister, told Reuters.
"We had carefully planned the madrasa reforms to make young minds understand the values of religious tolerance and it is finally paying off."
Sunday, October 15, 2006
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Sunday, October 15, 2006
Indian Islamic schools offer lesson in harmony
By Bappa Majumdar - Reuters - WorldWide Religious News
Monday, April 03, 2006
Kolkata, India - Indian schoolgirl Julita Oraon, a devout Christian, never misses Sunday mass, but the rest of her week is spent studying Arabic and Sufi literature among other subjects at an Islamic religious school, or madrasa.
Oraon is one of tens of thousands of Hindu and Christian students in the state of West Bengal now attending such schools: in this part of India, madrasas are emerging as beacons of tolerance. While a predominantly Hindu state, a quarter of West Bengal's population of 80 million are Muslims and one percent are Christians.
After a Hindu mob destroyed a mosque in the northern holy city of Ayodhya in 1992 much of India was wracked by deadly communal riots. But in Bengal students from madrasas, both Muslims and Hindus, led processions denouncing the demolition.
"People find it difficult to believe, but our madrasas ... are reflecting modern aspirations and expectations of the community irrespective of religion," Kanti Biswas, the state's education minister, told Reuters.
"We had carefully planned the madrasa reforms to make young minds understand the values of religious tolerance and it is finally paying off."
Monday, April 03, 2006
Kolkata, India - Indian schoolgirl Julita Oraon, a devout Christian, never misses Sunday mass, but the rest of her week is spent studying Arabic and Sufi literature among other subjects at an Islamic religious school, or madrasa.
Oraon is one of tens of thousands of Hindu and Christian students in the state of West Bengal now attending such schools: in this part of India, madrasas are emerging as beacons of tolerance. While a predominantly Hindu state, a quarter of West Bengal's population of 80 million are Muslims and one percent are Christians.
After a Hindu mob destroyed a mosque in the northern holy city of Ayodhya in 1992 much of India was wracked by deadly communal riots. But in Bengal students from madrasas, both Muslims and Hindus, led processions denouncing the demolition.
"People find it difficult to believe, but our madrasas ... are reflecting modern aspirations and expectations of the community irrespective of religion," Kanti Biswas, the state's education minister, told Reuters.
"We had carefully planned the madrasa reforms to make young minds understand the values of religious tolerance and it is finally paying off."
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