The racist backlash: An Australian Islamic school does not get a building permit
Another day, another story about Islam – or a proposed and rejected Islamic school, somewhere in Australia:
A senior member of Australia’s Muslim community has warned that religious education could be forced underground where children are more likely to be targeted by extremists, following the rejection of a proposal to build an Islamic school on the outskirts of Sydney. Islamic schools should be encouraged because teaching would be supervised by state boards of education, he added.
Patel was commenting on a decision by a local council earlier this week to reject a planning application for an Islamic school. Camden Council unanimously rejected the application for the 1,200-pupil school citing planning and environmental reasons, but the decision was widely hailed as a victory for the hundreds of residents who had vehemently opposed the scheme. Tensions within Camden, a semi-rural area, have been building since the school’s backer, the Qur’anic Society, revealed its plans. Two pigs’ heads impaled on stakes were left at the proposed site of the school and riot police had to be called in to break up one meeting of anti-school supporters.
Local people who said they didn’t want an influx of Muslims in their mainly Christian country town outnumbered those who had no objections to the school. Resident Kate McCulloch, draped in an Australian flag, was a cheerleader for the anti-school movement and said Muslims were not welcome. “We don’t want them here. We don’t want them in Australia. They’re an oppressive society,” she said. The inflammatory atmosphere was stoked by members of Australia First, a far-right party, which bussed demonstrators into the area.
It’s not often that I will sympathise more with a Muslim ‘community leader’ than with his opponents – and if I do so now it’s not that I am in favour of Islamic schools per se. In fact, I am against all faith schools, be they Christian, Muslim or what have you. I think schools should teach children about religion – preferably about all the major ones – but not with any particular religious bias. At least in the West, parents are free to take their children to the church of their choice, where the kids can be instructed by whatever member of the clergy is responsible for those things. I see no need for schools to be part of that instruction process.
Having said that, if it is lawful for one religion to have these types of faith schools, it should be lawful for all the other religions as well. You certainly don’t want a situation where one religion becomes, de facto, a state religion. In Europe that led to some very bloody wars in the past – and in the present we see the joys of such a state-church partnership in countries like Iran, Saudi Arabia etcetera.
Furthermore, mister Patel, who spoke in defence of this Islamic school, has a point: It’s better to have these religious lessons in an open session than in some back street and illegal mosque schools. God knows there are enough highly dubious goings-on in official mosques as well but if you do allow these teachings in a normal school setting, chances are you can avoid the more horrible variants of this so famously peaceful religion.
To flag-draped Kate McCulloch and the members of the Australia First party, just this: Thanks for showing the world that it’s not just Muslim fanatics who can behave in a truly repugnant fashion – and I think you will find that most of the Aboriginals will agree that the first, Christian invasion proved to be much more harmful to the original Australians than this Muslim invasion will prove to be to the Christian claimants to that title.
If you enjoyed this post, subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
May 29th, 2008 at 18:48
Education of Muslim Children
London School of Islamics is an educational Trust. Its aim is to make
British public, institutions and media aware of the needs and demands of the
Muslim community in the field of education and possible solutions.
Today in Slough Islamic school Trust Slough had a seminar on Muslim
education and schools in Thames Valley Atheltic Centre. The seminar was
addressed by the education spokesman of MCB. I could not attend the seminar
but I believe lot of Muslims from Slough and surrounding areas must have
attended. Very soon, the Muslims of Slough will have a state funded Muslim
school but there is a need for more schools. A day will come when all Muslim
children will attend state funded Muslim schools with bilingual Muslim
teachers as role model.
Muslim schools are not only faith schools but they are more or less
bilingual schools.
Bilingual Muslim children need to learn standard English to follow the
National Curriculum and go for higher studies and research to serve
humanity. They need to be well versed in Arabic to recite and understand the
Holy Quran. They need to be well versed in Urdu and other community
languages to keep in touch with their cultural roots and enjoy the beauty of
their literature and poetry.
Bilingualism is an asset but the British schooling regards it as a
problem. A Muslim is a citizen of this tiny global village. He/she does not
want to become notoriously monolingual Brit. Pakistan is only seven hours
from London and majority of British Muslims are from Pakistan.
More than third of British Muslim have no qualifications. British school
system has been failing large number of Muslims children for the last 60
years. Muslim scholars see the pursuit of knowledge as a duty, with the
Quran containing several verses to the rewards of learning. 33% of British
Muslims of working age have no qualifications and Muslims are also the least
likely to have degrees or equivalent qualifications. Most of estimated
500,000 Muslim school-aged pupils in England and Wales are educated in the
state system with non-Muslim monolingual teachers. Majority of them are
underachievers because they are at a wrong place at a wrong time.
Bilingual Muslim children need state funded Muslim schools with bilingual
Muslim teachers during their developmental periods. There is no place for a
non-Muslim child or a teacher in a Muslim school. As far as higher education
is concerned, Muslim students can be educated with others. Let Muslim
community educate its own children so that they can develop their own
Islamic, cultural and linguistic identities and become usefull members of
the British society rather than becoming a buden.
We are living in an English speaking country and English is an
international language, therefore, we want our children to learn and be well
versed in standard English and at the same time well versed in Arabic, Urdu
and other community languages. Is there anything wrong with this approach?
It is not only the Muslim community who would like to send their children to
Muslim school. Sikh and Hindu communities have started setting up their
schools. Last week. British Black Community has planned the first all black
school with Black teachers in Birmingham.
Scotland’s first state funded Muslim school could get the go-ahead within
months after First Munister Alex Salmond declared he was sympathetic towards
the needs and demands of the Muslim community.
Iftikhar Ahmad
London School of Islamics Trust
May 29th, 2008 at 19:08
Thanks for the long and insightful comment.
Of course, Muslim faith schools do more than teach about faith: that is true of all other faith schools as well. I agree with you that Europe (and not just England) has failed the children of many immigrants from many other cultures and countries. It must also be said though that sometimes the parents of these children have failed them, by isolating them too much from the wider community and by creating a kind of cultural bubble within the home.
I don’t think that it serves our societies as a whole to have more and more schools that cater to the different sub-groups within these societies, whether this is based on religion, race, original language or indeed gender. I think it’s important that children learn to interact with other children from as many different (cultural) backgrounds as possible – and the best place to start doing that is in our schools.
For now, it may be necessary to teach young Muslim children apart from other, native English speakers and have teachers who are able to reach and thus serve them better but I would hope that in time, when all or most of these children will be fluent in English and will have qualifications and training for better jobs, that their children won’t have any need for these schools.
What then would rest would be the wish of the Muslim and other communities to have faith schools, where they know their children will (also) be taught about their shared religion. As I said earlier, I don’t think that should be the business of a school but I also believe that if society accepts that Christians can have Christian schools, it has the obligation to accept Muslim, Judaic and other faith schools.
J.
November 25th, 2009 at 21:07
Perhaps the breath taking isolationism of Iftikhar Ahmad
London School of Islamics Trust could be seen for for the racism it represents. Urdu and Arabic will tend to make school children as backward in English usage as he is. If the school is designed around avoiding any sight, never mind love and deep respect and gratitude to all others people and faiths on these islands, it will breed ignorance and greatly impede muslim children learning about their country and its institutions.
Particularly muslim women’s journey to equality and the need to destroy Muslim Extremism will not be aided by such a school. Also many non islamic third world cultural practices such as burkas and veils, cousin marriage (in breeding), honour killing, female circumcision, forced marriage, and the fantasy that any belief makes you superior, all these things need integration and unity to be best overcome. Not a school that hides from every vestige of the Non-Islamic, and is pretending its in a backward corner of Saudi Arabia.
If Iftikhar Ahmad teachs at the school I feel he’ll forget the great truth a good christian is better than a bad muslim and a good muslim is better than a bad christian.
Finally, there isn’t a country in the world run by Sharia law, that offers its muslim children, the graduate opportunities and subject range they ALL enjoy within the UK.
Iffy Ahmad needs to ask himself if his daughter brings home a white son in law, will he still be a good muslim father in law, because he chose to live here and create the situation.
Best Regards
Paul Unity not Diversity
November 26th, 2009 at 03:41
Paul, I’m not sure I totally agree (but I do up to a very high perentage point) and I do thank you truly for reading this and partaking in this discussion,
J.