As a muslim parent, do you consider it unwise and foolish for your child to study/learn about other faiths ?

I think it's wise to explore other religions to have a greater understanding. At my son's school, we have a Muslim family who sends their child to a Catholic school. They believe it will open their child's mind and have good understanding of muslim and catholic. It is my understanding that God is one. He maybe one God to all of us, no matter what religion.

My cardiologist is Indian and my heart surgeon was from Lebanon. They did a superior job. My surgeon works like 6 days a week only b/c the hospital FORCES him to take a day off. He loves to heal people so much that I thought it was killing him but the day AFTER his day off he looked like he had a two week vacation. The guy is a saint. But that was Loma Linda Hospital too and they are VERY pro-patient there. The govt would have to come up with a new law or make an old law applicable. The separation of church and state makes it impossible for the govt to act against a parent who does something for religious reasons. In this case I would think that this borders on a hate crime done in some strange retroactive way. They hate the doctor which endangers the child ergo ... it's a hate crime mis-directed toward the child while in the guys of supposedly hating the doctor but no court will tell that to a parent since the courts assume that the parent loves the child but if they did wouldn't they ULTIMATELY do what is best for the child? Hang the parents and let the courts sort it out later. But then the kid ends up hurt again and no matter what ... wait ... the kids dead ... can't be hurt anymore ... cool ... hang the SOBS. As long as they don't have any more kids at home who will be harmed by killing the parents. And I don't think I would kill them. Give them life in prison to think about their sin. But then I can't judge them either so I guess we have to toss it up to the Universe and wait to see what happens. A death is a death and it really doesn't matter the reason. But it bothers me that the parent THOUGHT THAT HE WAS doing the right thing. There are no guarantees with medicine and he took a chance and lost. The fact that you TOLD him he might lose his child unless he was transferred cannot be ignored either. But what if the child HAD been transferred and died anyway? Sometimes when it is time to go you can't tell FATE "Hang on ... gimme a sec" ... it's like NOW! We can only assume that it was time for that child to move on to his next assignment. She had already done what she needed to do here ... whatever that might have been ... and now it's time for her next destination. This is really a tough one. I would send up a prayer for the baby and perhaps just move on on this one. I'm not usually so divided on your questions but this one is tricky. There is NO easy answer for THIS one. :-) Peace ... No More DEaths in the name of Religion PLEASE!

I'm Catholic and my little brother goes to a private Catholic high school which requires students to learn about their own faith and have a general understanding of our own inherent Christian faith, as well as other denominations' interpretations. Students are also required to learn about the Muslim faith, and I believe they choose a third.

I applaud the school for doing this, we're Catholic and my little brother had an authorized translated copy of the Q'aran at home during this course. He is only 17 and able to intellectually hold a discussion about the differences between Christian and Muslim faith moreso thatn college students I know who receive the most biased information from their Church leaders.

I wish that the extremists would not have tainted the word "Jihad" by making its translation abroad into something it's not. It does not mean Holy War in the sense of a crusade, possibly not at all as my understanding goes.

Jihad is the war within one's self, the battle to make our own efforts to please God and deliver our soul to him when we leave our earthly body.

We Christians don't have a word for it that I know of, but we share that struggle with those of Islam.

Unfortunately, many Christians will not acknowledge any similarity between other faiths. Some Christian leaders breed a stubbourn ignorance into the young congregations. In my experience, it's the Southern Baptist sect of Christianity that does this.

As a Muslim who grew up in America, I took it upon myself to learn as much as I could about other religions, philosophies and spiritual traditions. I still seek knowledge about them to this day. I think by not being exposed to other faiths, it suppressed a need for having a measuring stick to compare Islam with. For a while, I left faith, left Islam and left the belief in God, but didn't stop studying. After deep study and comparison, I eventually had a personal epiphany and deep spiritual experience which lead me back to God. This happened while I was away at college. I eventually came back to Islam as well. I continue to enjoy learning about the spiritual and scholarly connections Islam has with all other faiths as well as the variations within itself.

As a Muslim parents with young children, I enjoy discussing other faiths with my children and encourage them to understand them from indigenous sources whenever possible. I look forward to them growing older so we can have deeper discussions.

Living in a primarily Christian country, I feel it is vital to understand the various forms of Christian faiths for myself as well as for my children in order to be sure of their own identity and what they believe in. Of course I'm also taking steps that they do not become misinformed about Islam either through the mass media which tends to spread lies about our faith or the public school system.

I think it's foolish and unwise to indirectly teach your child to be partial and closed minded. Whether you know it or not, if you don't allow your child to EXPLORE their own field of knowledge, then you're limiting them, and that would be considered sinful. Regardless of how you were expected to behave as a child, an unknown reason for being a parent is to inadvertently do all the good things YOUR parents did and didn't do. Right?

Good Luck!

As a muslim parent you should tell your kids to follow your footsteps, i.e. misses the kaaba at makkah by several degrees and worship the rave discos at Tel Aviv instead, eat at local deli by 11am during ramadhan, say outloud Momo is the messanger of Allah the moonrock, done the hajj while shopping at dubai all the way and do not give a penny to the guys begging at the corner. No you should tell your children to study Buddha the fat bastard guide to passively fight obesity with mosquitos around

In 7th Grade, we had a whole month of Islamic teaching, we even had a man come and show us how they pray.

In 6th grade,we also had a whole month of Hinduism and Buddism teachings.

I actually enjoy learning about other religions. I like to see their point of views. But, I am however, convinced I am in the true religion so I don't see why it is necessary to go to other churches and what not.

I am always open to hear other people's beliefs and completely resepct them.

If I had children, I would love to teach them about other religions. In fact, this kind of learning is a part of the Baha'i Faith - for every Baha'i book we read, we're supposed to read 6 other non-Baha'i religious books.

While it is a very good thing to teach children about different religions, including their own, I would first teach them their own religion. Once they're learned in their own religion, then I'd introduce other religions to their studies.

I would because I'd love for my child to show people of different religions respect. What the child decides later on in life is whatever he or she wants to believe in. If my child did not want to go on the field trip, I wouldn't force them to either :).

To learn about others beliefs doesn't mean you have to believe them as well. It might give a child a better understand of peoples differences and accepting them.