Almost all children now believe they go to school to pass exams. The idea that they may be there for an education is irrelevant. State schools have become exam factories, interested only in A to C Grades. They do not educate children. Exam results do not reflect a candidate’s innate ability. Employers have moaned for years that too many employees cannot read or write properly. According to a survey, school-leavers and even graduates lack basic literacy and numeracy skills. More and more companies are having to provide remedial training to new staff, who can’t write clear instructions, do simple maths, or solve problems. Both graduates and school-leavers were also criticised for their sloppy time-keeping, ignorance of basic customer service and lack of self-discipline.
Bilingual Muslims children have a right, as much as any other faith group, to be taught their culture, languages and faith alongside a mainstream curriculum. More faith schools will be opened under sweeping reforms of the education system in England. There is a dire need for the growth of state funded Muslim schools to meet the growing needs and demands of the Muslim parents and children. Now the time has come that parents and community should take over the running of their local schools. Parent-run schools will give the diversity, the choice and the competition that the wealthy have in the private sector. Parents can perform a better job than the Local Authority because parents have a genuine vested interest. The Local Authority simply cannot be trusted.
The British Government is planning to make it easier to schools to “opt out” from the Local Authorities. Muslim children in state schools feel isolated and confused about who they are. This can cause dissatisfaction and lead them into criminality, and the lack of a true understanding of Islam can ultimately make them more susceptible to the teachings of fundamentalists like Christians during the middle ages and Jews in recent times in Palestine. Fundamentalism is nothing to do with Islam and Muslim; you are either a Muslim or a non-Muslim.
There are hundreds of state primary and secondary schools where Muslim pupils are in majority. In my opinion all such schools may be opted out to become Muslim Academies. This mean the Muslim children will get a decent education. Muslim schools turned out balanced citizens, more tolerant of others and less likely to succumb to criminality or extremism. Muslim schools give young people confidence in who they are and an understanding of Islam’s teaching of tolerance and respect which prepares them for a positive and fulfilling role in society. Muslim schools are attractive to Muslim parents because they have better discipline and teaching Islamic values. Children like discipline, structure and boundaries. Bilingual Muslim children need Bilingual Muslim teachers as role models during their developmental periods, who understand their needs and demands.
Indiscipline, incivility, binge drinking, drug addiction, gun and knife crimes, teenage pregnancies and abortion are part and parcel of British schooling. These are the reasons why majority of Muslim parents would like to send their children to Muslim schools with Muslim teachers as role models during their developmental periods. Only less than 5% attend Muslim schools and more than 95% keep on attending state and church schools to be mis-educated and de-educated by non-Muslim monolingual teachers.
None of the British Muslims convicted following the riots in Bradford and Oldham in 2001 or any of those linked to the London bombings had been to Islamic schools. An American Think Tank studied the educational back ground of 300 Jihadists; none of them were educated in Pakistani Madrasas. They were all Western educated by non-Muslim teachers. Bilingual Muslim children need bilingual Muslim teachers as role models. A Cambridge University study found that single-sex classes could make a big difference for boys. They perform better in single-sex classes. The research is promising because male students in the study saw noticeable gains in the grades. The study confirms the Islamic notion that academic achievement is better in single-sex classes.
None of 7/7 bombers and British Muslim youths who are in Syria and Iraq are the product of Muslim schools. They are the product of British schooling which is the home of institutional racism with chicken racist native teachers. It is absurd to believe that Muslim schools, Imams and Masajid teach Muslim children anti-Semitic, homophobic and anti-western views. It is dangerously deceptive and misleading to address text books and discuss them out of their historical, cultural and linguistic context. It is not wrong to teach children that Jews are committing the same cruelty in Palestine what German did to them before or during Second World War. It is not wrong to teach children that anti-social behaviour, drinking, drugs, homosexuality, sex before marriage, teenage pregnancies and abortions are western values and Islam is against all such sins. This does not mean that Muslim schools teach children to hate westerners, Jews and homosexuals.
The demand for Muslim schools comes from parents who want their children a safe environment with an Islamic ethos. Parents see Muslim schools where children can develop their Islamic Identity where they won't feel stigmatised for being Muslims and they can feel confident about their faith. Muslim schools are working to try to create a bridge between communities. There is a belief among ethnic minority parents that the British schooling does not adequately address their cultural needs. Failing to meet this need could result in feeling resentment among a group who already feel excluded. Setting up Muslim school is a defensive response. State schools with monolingual teachers are not capable to teach English to bilingual Muslim children. Bilingual teachers are needed to teach English to such children along with their mother tongue. According to a number of studies, a child will not learn a second language if his first language is ignored.
The West has never been at ease with Islam since the Crusades. It is unfortunate that huge oil supplies lie under the Arabian Deserts. It is the West that stirred the trouble that led to 9/11. That attack was a desperate act of by men prepared to lose their life. We need to get to grips on who is the terrorist? On 24 November 1963, Lyndon Johnson said, “the battle against communism… must be joined… with strength and determination. Some three million lives were lost in the consequential battles. The US had to pull out due to Public Opinion. Communism lived on. So who was the terrorist?
The British establishment is wrong in thinking that Imams are to blame for extremism. Imams are not solution to the problem for extremism. Extremism is nothing to do with Imams. Extremism is not created from abroad, it is coming from within. Britain fails to help Muslim communities feel part of British society. Race trouble is being predicted by the Daily Express, because of an ethnic boom in UK major cities. Muslim communities need imams for the solutions of their needs and demands in their own native languages. Muslim parents would like to see their children well versed in Standard English and to go for higher studies and research to serve humanity. The fact is that majority of Muslim children leave schools with low grades because monolingual teachers are not capable to teach Standard English to bilingual Muslim children. A Muslim is a citizen of this tiny global village. He/she does not want to become notoriously monolingual Brit.
Terrorism and sexual grooming is nothing to do with Masajid, Imams and Muslim schools. Those Muslim youths who have been involved in terrorism and sexual grooming are the product of western education system which makes a man stupid, selfish and corrupt. They find themselves cut off from their cultural heritage, literature and poetry. They suffer from identity crises and I blame British schooling.
The shocking level of targeting of the Muslim community of Birmingham is indicative of the normalisation of the dehumanisation of the Muslims of Britain. Under the pretext of "extremism", criminal undemocratic and unethical abuse of public institutions and the Muslims of the UK can occur without much accountability. This pervasive attitude, especially amongst officials like Michael Gove needs to change. Our schools are truly trying to develop our children to do well at schools so later in life they are able to stand on their own two feet, but if we stop our schools from doing this than our country will have up rise of unemployment, benefit issues, crime levels high, I think its time for you apologize and allow practitioners to do their job right.
Iftikhar Ahmad
The tory "Free Schools" could have been useful but in the past year they have decided to decapitate it by their mantra of "Run, the Muslims are coming!" and the trojan horse fiasco.
It's a shame that no political party stood up to Gove at the time - they all couldn't wait to get in line and jump on the bandwaggon, which was shameful.
Good schooling is important and I am of the opinion that while faith based schools are good, they have to pricipally be good schools that are faith based as oposed to poor schools that rely on the crutch of offering something to the community.
"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.
Actually, the evidence to support this “Trojan Horse” thing is sketchy at best. From the perspective of most people who have “concerns” about it, it is a rumour – if there is any evidence beyond the meme they saw on Facebook, they haven’t seen any of it. All the press reporting of Trojan Horse has been reporting of “concerns” – to my knowledge, the press have made no effort to verify whether those “concerns” are valid before telling everyone how widespread they are and tacitly implying that anyone who doesn’t share them probably shouldn’t be trusted with YOUR children. Yet people queue up for these schools. The call to end faith schools is short sighted. These schools produce above average results on the whole and are important for the economy of this country.
This Trojan Horse is a stir up to put up an attitude amongst the British community upon Muslims AGAIN, this hysteria has all been blown up because they do not want non-Muslim youngsters falling to the idea of Islam. Jewish schools have a more strict approach to religion than the majority of Islamic schools or schools that are heavily influenced by Muslim governors, yet they are not gonna be investigated because any hysteria brought up would be labelled anti-Semitism to become increasingly anti-establishment and belligerent. And they would have every reason to if this garbage continues. Park view is not multi cultural. It is mono cultural. It is to all purposes an Islamic school posing as a British secular state school. This “Trojan horse” thing worries me…I do not think that Greek classical mythology necessarily falls within the frame of reference of Muslims.. This affair was started by a hoax letter , driven by Islamophobia , which achieved its end , courtesy of a Government paranoid about ‘ extremism ‘ without any definition of what it means , and a ‘ anti-terrorism industry ‘ trying to justify itself and its funding to the Home Office . Meanwhile Ofsted have become a political tool , a new thought police , with little relevance to the standards of education , and an agenda driven by paranoia in a society which constantly changes its moral goalposts , itself in moral flux and confusion . And let not forget where did this all started, with Al Qaeda, which was created and nurtured and armed by the West. Now everyone is complaining where do all these extremism come from. If you are serious about fighting Muslim extremism start by going to the source, in allied countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, and so on. But that would never happen because you also want your cheap oil. Hypocrite.
A Birmingham school at the centre of the Trojan Horse investigation spent £50,000 on a taxpayer-funded trip to Saudi Arabia for students and staff. The school had described the Saudi Arabia tours as ‘‘modern foreign languages trips’’ with the ‘‘double benefit’’ of allowing students to perform Umrah, a religious pilgrimage.
Last May 40 students and eight staff travelled to Mecca and Medina. The ten-day visit involved stays at luxury five-star hotels.
The 2013 trip to Saudi Arabia had initially won praise from Ofsted in a report last year. Talking about pupil feedback, the report stated: “For pupils who spoke to the inspectors, last year’s trip had clearly been a life-changing experience.’’
But in the new damning Ofsted report, released on Monday, inspectors raised concerns. “Governors have used the academy’s budget to subsidise a trip to Saudi Arabia for only Muslim staff and pupils,’’ it said.
IA
"The West as never been at ease with Islam since the Crusades".
When you teach Islamic history in your Islamic Schools, will you teach the truth? All countries that border the mediterranean were Christian prior to the rise of Islam.
The rise of Islam same about using the fact that the Romans and Persians had fought themselves to a standstill and started to collapse from within.
Islam took the opportunity to expand out of Arabia. Taking by Conquest the Middle East, North Africa and Spain by 718 and was only stopped from taking over France by Charles Martell at the battle of Tours in 732.
This in turn led to the eventual push back of Islam in Spain and back to North Africa [The first Islamic Invasion of Europe]
The First Crusade was in 1096 at the request of the Byzantine Christians who where at risk from Islamic invasion from the Middle east. This First Crusade did more damage to Christian solidarity then the Muslims ever did. The second crusade was a bit more disciplined and the third one eventually took Jerusalam. But the Crusades were a resonse to the Islamic invasion of the Levant in 632-661, the conquest of North Africa, Spain and the invasion of France.
After the Islamic conquest of Constantinople/Istanbul and the forming of the Ottoman Empire in 1453, which in turn led to its expnsion through the Balkans and Bulgaria leading to the invasion of Austria and the first seize of Vienna in 1683 by the Ottomans. Before they [the Ottomans ] were defeated an pushed back out of Austria, Bulgaria and most of the Balkans. [ This was the second Islamic invasion of Europe]
Without being too Islamaphobic? some people would say that what Europe is going through now is the third Islamic invasion of Europe.
Why? maybe the west as lost its will after two major world wars and the cold war WEST v USSR and have just got tired of fighting. A bit like the Roman and Persian Empires and Islam makes use of this weakness again? But this time by useing the power of the Islamic womb to become the dominent people. Col Ghadaffi's words not mine.
What the final outcome will be i do not know, but ask yourself two questions, 1] will you teach the true history of Islam [warts and all] or will you sanitize it saying only the west has decadent corrupt and cruel empires? and b] for most of the Muslims in Britain of Pakistani origin, learn your countries history before the British Empire, and ask your self, why is Pakistan a Muslim Country and why did the Christian British not force you to convert to Christianity?
Being a british citizen means that we all have right to influence change in society for what we see to be betterment for the whole society.
That right is also for muslims, those that emigrated here, those born here or those who converted to Islam at a later stage.
They all have a right and duty to try to improve society.
(Many of the immigrants to the UK may have agreed with the british principles of their time, but if those "principles" later changed to be less inclusive, that is not their fault.)
"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.
Islam presents a policy of religious tolerance, rooted in teachings on the universal nature of man, his free relationship to God, and the divine origins of other religions. The prophet Muhammad separated his authority as a religious leader from his position as a governor, creating a religiously diverse society from the very start. This contrasted to the Christian world, where men were regarded to be born in original sin, only to be redeemed by Christ through the one true Church. Ever since the Byzantine Empire, Christian rulers had governed by the motto ‘One State, One Law, One Faith’, leading to horrendous persecutions of heretics. Throughout history, persecuted Christians have noticed the contrast to the tolerance within Islam. When, in the 16th century, persecutions in Europe became unbearable, Christian advocates of tolerance referred to the Ottoman Empire as the model to adopt. The example of the empire was offered in debates on tolerance from Hungary to Germany, France, the Netherlands and Great Britain, up until the 18th century, by tolerance advocates such as Sebastian Castellio, Francis Junius, John Locke and Voltaire. The Netherlands became a junction, adopting not only the Ottoman model of religious diversity, but also receiving political and military support from Ottoman sultans.
In 1765, eleven years before composing the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson bought a Qur’an. This marked only the beginning of his lifelong interest in Islam, and he would go on to acquire numerous books on Middle Eastern languages, history, and travel, taking extensive notes on Islam as it relates to English common law. Jefferson sought to understand Islam notwithstanding his personal disdain for the faith, a sentiment prevalent among his Protestant contemporaries in England and America. But unlike most of them, by 1776 Jefferson could imagine Muslims as future citizens of his new country.
Many Muslims and non-Muslims alike claim that Islam is a religion of peace and that violence perpetrated in the name of Islam is actually due to distortions or misunderstandings of the religion. The historical fact is that Muslims in general adhered to the Quranic ideal of showing tolerance and compassion to Jews and Christians who lived in Muslim-ruled lands.Another historical event worthy of mention is the surrender of Jerusalem to the Caliph Omar in AD 637. The Caliph travelled to Jerusalem in order to accept the surrender of the city from the Patriarch Sophronius. Sophronius then invited Omar to pray in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Omar declined the invitation for fear that his praying there may set a precedent that may eventually lead to the conversion of the church to a mosque.
These early historical examples of the gracious treatment of Christians by Muslims were not exceptions, but the rule. They continued throughout Islamic history.
Spain under Muslim rule, Al-Andalus, particularly between the 8th and 11th centuries, was known as a golden age of Jewish history, when Jewish philosophy and culture made advances. At a time when Jews were persecuted elsewhere in Europe, Andalusia’s Jews flourished, even taking up high positions in government.
The Ottoman Empire (1299-1023) went beyond tolerance and accepted non-Muslim minorities, granting them protection and religious freedoms. By the 16th century, the Ottomans established control over large parts of Europe, ruling over large Christian populations. Sultan Mehmet developed a system in which each religious community, or millet, elected its own leader and enforced its own religious laws. Orthodox Christians constituted a millet; the Jews another.
A proper approach to the interpretation of Quranic texts, involving a correct contextual understanding of its meanings, and the study of Islamic history, will reveal that tolerance and acceptance of non-Muslim minorities were the norm.
While Muslim empires were not liberal according to the standards of modern democracies, they were certainly progressive in comparison to their contemporaries when it came to dealing with religious minorities. Deviations from the norm were treated as violations by most Muslim themselves. This was true of Al-Hakim and is certainly the case with ISIS today.
The problem lies not with Islam the religion, but with ideological interpretations of it. The purest of ideas in a text can be reinterpreted in line with evil interests. All ideologies, religious or secular, have been subjected to this.