The next day, Friday, 2005_03_25, the headline in the Citizen (this time sprawled over all six columns) read, "Province to investigate school". This piece, too, is now on the Web. It appears that to Canada's credit, the powers that be are taking the incident seriously, and so are many citizens. For example, on 2005_03_25, the local tabloid (The Ottawa Sun), published an article on the topic, entitled, 'There is no room for hatred'.

Now comes the Chutzpah element. The anti-Israel propaganda machine has long ago adopted a system of trying to turn the tables on Israel in every respect. If the Jewish people were the victims of the Holocaust, leave it to the Arabs to invent a Holocaust of their own (the Nakba, which really was of their own making). So it should come as no surprise that an organization calling itself CIC (which used to be Canada-Israel Committee and now has become Canadian Islamic Congress), came out with this web-posted gem:

CIC Alarmed at What Students Are Learning in Canadian Hebrew Schools

The Canadian Islamic Congress today urged Jewish community leaders to reevaluate what Canadian Jewish youth are being taught in Hebrew schools, saying the viewpoints that influence students could threaten healthy relationships between many Canadians in our multicultural and pluralist society.

In a letter to the editor published by the Kingston Whig Standard on March 17th, 2005 a nine-year-old Jewish student wrote:

"I learned at my Hebrew school that Israel doesn't want to fight. It only wants to protect itself. Jews have been trying to protect themselves in the land for 3,000 years. The war in Israel has been going on since Israel became a state in 1948. The reason there's war is because when the British divided the state, the Palestinians wanted more, and invaded Israel, wanting to push the Israelis into the sea. The Palestinians lost the war and now have the West Bank. Israel doesn't have a 'war leader,' but it has leaders who want peace."

"There is both a challenge and an opportunity here," commented CIC national president Prof. Mohamed Elmasry. "Much could be accomplished by teaching the children of our communities fair and accountable historical facts. If young Canadian Jews and Muslims knew about each other's faith and history fairly and accurately, we could build a broader basis for dialogue instead of conflict."

Should you wish to let the CIC know what you think, here are the addresses:

np@canadianislamiccongress.com
Dr. Mohamed Elmasry
(519) 746-4107 (O)
(519) 577-2267 (Cell)
e-mail: np@canadianislamiccongress.com

Mrs. Wahida Valiante, CIC's National VP
(905) 771-1023,
e-mail: nvp@canadianislamiccongress.com