Edwards, an S.C. native and former U.S. senator from North Carolina, told a crowd of about 300 at Benedict College the U.S. should work to educate children of poor and developing nations, including Muslim children in Africa.
“America shouldn’t be following. We should be leading that effort for kids to actually be educated in Africa in the Muslim world. Not taught in madrassas where they’re taught to hate the United States of America,” Edwards said.
A madrassa is an Islamic religious school. Some say the schools foster terrorism.
A magazine article earlier this year claimed U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., one of Edwards’ top competitors for the Democratic nomination, was educated in a madrassa while he was living in Indonesia as a child. That report was later debunked. Obama attended school in Indonesia, but it was a secular, not religious, school.
Edwards’ visit to Columbia comes as his campaign threatens to fade from the list of “top tier” candidates seeking the Democratic nomination. Even in his native state, the only state he won in the 2004 presidential primary campaign, recent polls show him firmly in third place, far behind U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and trailing or tied with Obama.
The State 3/20/07
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/politics/16937128.htm
