From the Times Online, with thanks to all who sent this in:
THE rise of Islamic schools is a potential threat to Britain’s sense of national identity, the head of Ofsted said yesterday.David Bell said that Muslim and other faith schools outside the state system were teaching a narrow curriculum that failed to prepare children for life in a multicultural democracy.
He called on the Government to monitor the significant growth of independent religious schools to ensure that their pupils learnt “the wider tenets of British society”.“We must not allow our recognition of diversity to become apathy in the face of any challenge to our coherence as a nation,” Mr Bell, the Chief Inspector of Schools in England, said.
Three guesses — no, one guess — as to what kind of reaction this got:
Muslim leaders accused Mr Bell of Islamophobia.Mr Bell said that parents had a right to pay for a faith-based education for their children but that the State also had the right to set “certain expectations of what will be done there”.
“Crucial to that is being aware of the political institutions in society, of being part of a democracy, of other faiths. In some of the Muslim schools that is not happening to a sufficient degree,” he said.
The chief inspector’s comments came in a lecture at the Hansard Society in London on citizenship education, which he said required schools to consider “what it means to be British”.
His annual report next month would show a near doubling in the number of independent faith schools to about 300, compared with 170 in 2003. They included more than 100 Muslim schools and about 100 run by evangelical Christian groups.
“Faith should not be blind. I worry that many young people are being educated in faith-based schools, with little appreciation of their wider responsibilities and obligations to British society,” he said. “This growth in faith schools needs to be carefully but sensitively monitored by government to ensure that pupils receive an understanding of not only their own faith but of other faiths and the wider tenets of British society,” Mr Bell said.
The Ofsted chief called on Muslim schools to reform their curriculums so that pupils “acquire an appreciation of and respect for other cultures in a way that promotes tolerance and harmony”.
He said that the Association of Muslim Schools was working to support schools more effectively in this.
Mr Bell said the issue had been brought into focus as all schools were now required to show that pupils were given a broad understanding of public institutions and services in England.
Iqbal Sacranie, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said that it was astonishing that Mr Bell had singled out Muslim schools when only 3 per cent of Muslim children attended them. “The issue of community cohesion and coherence is of paramount importance for the whole nation. But we consider it highly irresponsible to suggest that the growth of Muslim faith schools poses a threat to ‘our coherence as a nation’,” he said.
Mohamad Mukadam, chairman of the Association of Muslim Schools, accused Mr Bell of Islamophobia. Dr Mukadam, who is also principal of Leicester Islamic Academy, which has 700 pupils aged 5 to 16, said: “I challenge him to come up with evidence that Muslim schools are not preparing young people for life in British society. I think it’s a misconception of Islamic schools and a further example of Islamophobia. For a person in his position to make such a generalised comment just beggars belief."
Islamophobia is now in the public domain. It is, however, not the proper term to describe the feeling of revulsion at the acts, words, and lies of the Islamic invaders felt by many. A phobia is a fear. It is not fear that causes the outrage at the unmasked intent of Muslims to subject our world to their ideology. Aversion, disgust, and a determination to defeat the purveyors of this ideology of violence better describes the feelings that it evokes.
What Muslim leaders describe as Islamophobia is in fact a legitmate reaction to the intolerant tenets of the so called 'religion' of Islam.
Why the hell aren't they (the Muslim leaders) agreeing with OFSTED? Do they deny the very tenebale indoctrination of Jihad at lesser or greater levels? Or the self-evident indoctrination of sumbission of non-muslims? The situation is getting increasingly preposterous; whereby legitamte concerns are raised and are beaten down as dicriminatory?
Wary Westerners are not Islamophobes, a word invented to tar anyone that is not cowed and silenced. Understanding that their culture, way of life and personal liberties are at risk, they are acting in self defense.
Islamophobia is what they want us to have. The Qu'ran is filled with passages where Allah, Mohammed, or the Mohammadens fill unbelievers with "terror". That's a big part of Islam, making the kufr feel terror.
Hell yes, I'm Islamophobic. There is no other 'religion' which will sue, stab, behead, or blow me up for expressing the slighest criticism.
From LGF poster HULUGU (no relation):
I'm just thankful Sacranie isn't accusing Bell of being anti-Semitic. Muslims have co-opted just about every other narrative from the West.
Does anyone know if Ofsted is under Blair's command? If so, I would expect David Bell to receive a severe tongue lashing -- or worse -- for stepping out of line with the Blair dhimmitude mandate.
Ofsted stands for Office for Standards in Education, which is an official government body overseeing education. This plus the fact that Mr Bell is the Chief Inspector of Schools in England suggests that the UK Government is starting to wake up to the unintended social marginalization of Muslim immigrants that Islamic schools may be encouraging. The public education system in the United States was one of the great institutions for integrating immigrants. If everyone had gone to their own ethnic and faith-based schools instead of public schools, we'd have never become such a relatively united country. That's why it's important that the United Kingdom also control over the curriculum.
Patrick:
Most other immigrant religious/ethnic groups foster loyalty and appreciation in their children as they appreciate the safe and prosperous lives they can aspire to and attain in their new home countries.
This might have also been the case with earlier waves of Muslim immigration to western Europe and North America, too. I have Muslim acquaintances who arrived in Canada in the 60s and 70s and they don't seem to fall under the "taint".
But things seem to have changed markedly in the last 20 year or so -- post the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Saudi Arabia's very active sponsorship of Wahhabism. I almost wonder if there's a connection here -- the Saudis throwing around money big time to ensure they remain dominant and not superceded by the lowly, much despised Persian Shias. (would love to hear Hugh's conjecture on this musing)
I think the first main wave of Muslim immigrants made more of an effort to integrate than subsequent generations of Muslims actually born in the UK.
A good example of this is the Ugandan Asians who were thrown out by Idi Amin. These people were the 'Jews' of Uganda, ie hard working, talented people inexplicably rejected. The UK has actually benefited from these Muslims. On the other hand, when they came there wasn't the PC multi-cultural crap around that there is now, and Muslims, like other immigrants were expected to fit in or f*** off.
I'm actually very glad that some of these ideas are getting into the mainstream press. The phrase 'tolerating intolerance' is spot on.
Islamic terrorism has created no phobia, only reaction to intolerance put forth by tyrannts who preach what they describe as a "peaceful religion," that is nothing more than a form of Naziism. Ignorance will propel the Islamic faith forward. Intelligence will fence the violence and in the end, truth will expose those for who they really are.
Mr. Bell clearly has no clue about the TRUE truth.
How dare he tell God's messengers and THE ordained people of Allah to DO anything?
He should be kissing their khaftans and praying that they will be merciful when they gain demographic dominance.
Doesn't he want his grandchildren to be treated as the very best of second class citizens?
The nerve of this infidel dog!
"Verily... they will roast in Hell-fire!" -Sura 4.