Islamic instructors are using New South Wales public school classrooms to teach children about “hellfire” and to warn Muslim children to not “compromise or change your identity”.

In teaching materials published online by Islamic Special Religious Education (ISRE), provided by the Islamic Council of NSW, students as young as eight (year 3) are told to “obey Allah” and “choose friends wisely” because people they hang around would “affect our behaviour and identity”.

In a section detailing ‘lessons learnt’, the syllabus warns students against changing their identity and says that, in changing times, they should seek Allah’s love and approval and “not that of people who have forgotten Allah”.

In a curriculum developed by Australian Islamic Education Services (AIES), a not-for-profit organisation set up by the Australian National Imams Council, students in years 7-8 learn about whether their deeds will result in “admission to paradise or hellfire”.

Students learning from the AIES curriculum also learn that they:

• “…must affirm” their faith “with no taint of doubt”;
• “Recognise that Quran and Islam abrogates all previous scriptures and religions”;
• “Recognise that Islamic belief and creed is built on an unwavering, undoubting acceptance.”

Earlier this year, the Rationalist Society of Australia raised concerns with new education minister Prue Car (pictured) about the teaching of creationism in public schools by Christian missionaries under the guise of the scripture program, known as Special Religious Education (SRE) in New South Wales.

The RSA discovered teaching materials that compares creation with evolution and claims that “some people think the theories of evolution and creation by God can both be true.”

In a letter to Minister Car, RSA president Dr Meredith Doig asked what the Minns government would do to ensure creationism was not taught in the classrooms of New South Wales public schools. The RSA is yet to receive a response.

At the RSA Webinar in March, Dr Jennifer Bleazby said teachers of religious instruction at public schools in New South Wales and Queensland use numerous methods of indoctrination, including deception, reliance on pedagogy that supports uncritical learning, emotional indoctrination, such as fear and scare tactics, and rewards and inducements.

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Image: Prue Car (Facebook)