School Leaders Trained On Muslim Bullying

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WSMV.com:

Murfreesboro school teachers and principals are receiving training on how to deal with bullying and understanding the Muslim culture.

Islamic Center of Murfreesboro member Saleh Sbenaty said two of his three children have been victims of bullying in school.

"My son, you know, one time was called a terrorist, and my daughter was also called a communist," Sbenaty said.

There are 300-350 Muslim students attending Murfreesboro city schools and Rutherford County schools, but only a handful have reported being bullied.

"We are estimating about 15 cases," said Sbenaty.

Murfreesboro City Schools Director Linda Gilbert said bullying of Muslim students is not a big problem.

"No, we are really taking this as a proactive stance, so we are using it for prevention and really to gain knowledge," said Gilbert.

That's one of the reasons the U.S. Justice Department and U.S. attorney's office held a sensitivity training workshop. The controversy and backlash surrounding a proposed mosque is another reason.

"Our children ... are the innocent, are victims of attacks both verbal and physical," said Lobna Ismail of Connecting Cultures.

The cultural awareness training was developed by Connecting Cultures and the Unity Productions Foundation. Teachers, principals, community leaders and police learned about stereotypes of American Muslims.

"It's miscommunication or misunderstanding of another culture," said Hanan Kuzit of the Islamic Center of Nashville.

Islamic center leaders said there was not a big problem with bullying two years ago. It wasn't until they decided to build a new mosque that the isolated cases started to happen, they said.

"We thank both the school systems because they are doing such a good job," Sbenaty said. "We feel these are isolated incidents, but bullying and harassment in schools are unacceptable at any level."

Go to www.upf.tv to find out more about understanding Muslim diversity, policy and security implications.

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Do the muslims ever get any training in on assimilation? Seems it is a two-way street, you assimilate and we will maybe get kids to stop bullying. But bullying is probably as old as Islam.