Government is paralysed with fear as extremism flourishes in “faith schools”

We’ve been telling the Government for years that Islamic schools in this country are simply academies of indoctrination. The Education Department wasn’t in a mood to listen, afraid that the “Muslim community” would start crying ‘Islamophobia’.

Now Ed Balls, the Education Minister, says he is “concerned” that these schools are not preparing pupils for “life in wider British society”. Consequently, he has ordered Ofsted to investigate a small sample of independent faith schools to find out if they meet obligations to teach pupils about other religions and cultures.

This apparent change of heart follows the publication of a report last month from the think-tank Civitas which claimed some Islamic schools were promoting fundamentalist views.

Naturally, the Association of Muslim Schools said that it would happily go along with the investigation, claiming it was “at the forefront of preparing children and young people to face the challenges of life in modern Britain”. Mohamed Mukadam, chairman of the Association of Muslim Schools, said: “I’ve yet to see any surveys or Ofsted reports that show big concerns about Muslim schools.”

That’s because — as Civitas also revealed — the Ofsted inspectors are terrified of criticising Muslim schools for fear of “causing offence” and being labelled ‘Islamophobic.’

Of course, all things are relative and what some people would regard as reasonable behaviour in a “faith school” (forcing girls to wear headcoverings, denying girls swimming lessons or sport, spending an inordinate amount of the school day studying the Koran, denying evolution and promoting creationism) other people would regard as extremism. If I might quote from the Civitas report:

“Music, chess and cricket are just three things banned in some Muslim schools in the UK. Others are drama, dance, sport, Shakespeare, and, in some cases, any aspect of Western culture whatever. According to the management committee of London's Madani Secondary Girls' School, this is because "our children are exposed to a culture that is in opposition with almost everything Islam stands for". The response to this sense of danger is often to forbid outright any kind of relationship with non-Muslims: "Allah has warned us in the Koran, do not befriend the kuffaar. The Jews and Christians will never be content with you until you follow their way," says Riyadhul Haq, a teacher in Kidderminster.”

The Madani Girls’ School is part of the state sector, funded by you and me (and the aforementioned Mohammed Mukadam just happens to be its head teacher). It has now removed the offending sentence quoted above from its website, which is not to say it has disowned the sentiments.

Mr Mukadam has a history of moving the goalposts to suit his agenda. See this story for another example. His response to the Civitas report was to say that it promoted “distrust”.

But distrust is something that we should all feel towards Mr Mukadam’s campaign to separate Muslim children further from the mainstream of society.

Unfortunately, Ed Balls, like the Government as a whole, isn’t likely to have the guts to offer a real challenge to this dangerous development that is happening right in front of our eyes in the full glare of daylight. We predict that this investigation, like all the others concerning “faith schools”, will come to nothing.

13 March 2009