Editorial By Terry Sanderson: Muslim Council Wants To Turn Schools Into Religious Minefields

The reassuring news from this week is that the Government has not taken kindly to a report published by the Muslim Council of Britain which demanded that schools in this country make large-scale provision for the traditions and religion of “Muslim” pupils. “This is not official guidance and is not endorsed by the Government, nor does it have any binding power whatsoever on schools,” said a spokesman for the Department for Education and Skills (DfES).

The MCB’s “guidance document” entitled Towards Greater Understanding – Meeting the Needs of Muslim Pupils in State Schools claims to give “information on how schools can respond positively to some commonly raised issues concerning Muslim pupils including halal food, dress code, Ramadan, provision for prayers, collective worship etc”. It was launched by Professor Tim Brighouse, Chief Adviser for London Schools and you can read it here.

Naturally we all want pupils from every culture to be respected and cared for, but as you read through the MCB’s “guidance” you rapidly realise that it is the product of theocrats who want to turn our schools into religious minefields where Islamic sensibilities are waiting to trip you up around every corner.

It starts with the MCB’s favourite definition of “Islamophobia” – a definition that brands anyone who has doubts or fears about the ideology of Islam as a racist. “Islamophobia,” says the report, “is the term currently being used to denote an extreme and abnormal fear and/or aversion to Islam in general and Muslims in particular.”

Neat, isn’t it? If you don’t like Islam you don’t like Muslims, ergo – you’re a racist. The worst excesses of Islam are therefore beyond criticism by anyone who doesn’t want to be branded as racist.

Not all Muslims are as attached to their religion as the MCB document would have us believe. A graph at the beginning of the document claims that 85% of children from Muslim backgrounds regard their religion as “extremely important to them”. There is no indication where this figure came from, though.

There is no acknowledgement that some children from Muslim families might actually not want to put so much emphasis on religious observance while they’re at school. If these recommendations were to be accepted, we would have schools where all Muslims are pushed into the arms of the local mullahs. Girls who don’t want to swathe their heads in scarves will feel obliged to do so. People who don’t want to eat halal food will find they have no alternative.

The demands are never-ending – no Western clothes, no swimming during Ramadan (or at any other time if there is a likelihood that pupils might see somebody naked in the changing room). No dancing, no music (except voices and drums), no sex education, no representative art, no handshaking between sexes – and for goodness sake don’t mispronounce people’s names or give them nicknames. It might be unIslamic.

The Communities Secretary, Ruth Kelly, is holding an enquiry into how to build community cohesion. Well, the first thing she should do to bring people together is to consign this report into the bin. Community Cohesion is not encouraged by emphasising religious differences in schools. Different times for Collective Worship, different times for prayers (in separate prayer rooms), different days for holidays, Arabic lessons, learning the Koran – when are these kids going to find time for lessons?

The more this kind of thing is pushed by the people with a heavy, authoritarian, controlling religious agenda, the more I long for the good sense of the French and the Americans and the Turks. Get religion out of schools. Get all of it out: collective worship; religious education; prayer rooms, the works. Let’s return schools to their primary purpose – academic education. Let’s bring our children together, not drive them apart. Get the self-interested “faith leaders” – Christian, Muslim, Jew, intelligent designers and creationists – out of our education system once and for all. And keep them out.

See also: High demand for Islamic school in Bristol
A parallel Muslim universe
Schools are for teaching, not handing out Bibles
http://eursoc.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/1409/School's_Out_(Along_With_Swimming,_Art,_RE...).html
British Hindus being forced to convert to Islam
Imposing Islamic Law
You will see from this website how Muslim educators are beavering away on school governing bodies and in classrooms to create “whole Muslim personalities” in schools. http://mtecuk.org/