Many inner-city Catholic schools serve a student population that is largely, if not overwhelmingly, non-Catholic. But imagine the uproar and ridicule if any other faith group in the US went to a diocesan office and said, "About St. State-Your-Name: Fork it over. We're in the majority anyway."

Better yet, in my hometown (Toledo), many Muslim families still choose Catholic schools over the Islamic Academy that opened in the past few years. I imagine a lot of the parents didn't leave their home countries to put their children through the same dysfunctional system they fled.

Posted by: Shinoliite at January 17, 2006 1:09 AM

Is this obnoxious statement by osama saeed in response to a previous statement by Cardinal O'Brien that the core faith of Scotland is Christianity? I.e. a sly and provocative: "no it isn't".

I hope this incident is registering in the Vatican. It will be interesting to see if Pope Benedict responds in some fashion to this, although, I think the Pope shouldn't stoop to respond to saeed directly.

Posted by: del at January 17, 2006 2:31 AM

Something similar was attempted about 8-10 years ago (which is why I am unable to name the school or give an internet link to the report) at a Church of England School in Bethnal Green (constituency of Gruesome Georgie Galloway, here kitty, kitty, kitty) where there were a large proportion of Muslim pupils. A prominent local Muslim leader took them, or threatened to take them, to the Race Relations Board because "there were no Muslims on the board of governors" This was answered quite simply at that time by pointing to the Anglican constitution of the school and the presence of black Christians from Afro/Caribbean backgrounds. I lost touch with the story, forgot which school it was and now can't find out what the current situation is, or even whether the school still exists as an Anglican establishment. The Barnabas Fund says that many Christian names in the borough have been changed, and a quick look through yellow pages shows familiar names gone, and Islamic ones in the list.

Posted by: Granny Weatherwax at January 17, 2006 3:06 AM

Collective insanity.

This is not simply PC gone off the rails, these people have lost their minds and souls...

Posted by: sheik yer'mami at January 17, 2006 3:06 AM

This looks like the beginning of the end .....
Muslims procreate at over 4 times the rate of the average westerner. In time, at this rate every school in towns inhabited by Muslims will be claimed by them, as they would be in the majority.
Its time Western countries looked into what is taking place and put a stop to Muslim immigration and Muslim asylum seekers and giving free handouts to these parasites who will eventually kill the host..

Posted by: faqi at January 17, 2006 3:11 AM

Of course the Muslims are free to start their own schools -- pay for their own land and buildings, and give their own classically "Islamic" education to their Muslim children. Why don't they?

It is fascinating to consider that whenever given a chance to send their children to a good school, the elites in Arab lands never hesitate. Just as Edward Said's parents went to Jerusalem so his mother could deliver him in a well-run, hygienic, hospital with Jewish doctors (the same kind of hospital, incidentally, and doctors who kept Said alive for a few more hate-filled years, and in which he finally died), so he was sent to the Anglican school Victoria College.

And in Iraq, Chalabi, Allawi, and all the others who make sense or a kind of sense from the old, well-heeled elite were sent to Baghdad College, a high school run by the Jesuits.

The advanced, rich, and most worldly of Kuwaitis (Behbehanis and other Friends of Fouad), send their children to the American School -- and not merely for the training in English (though it is true that many of these children know English better than they know Arabic -- and their parents sometimes like to tell Westerners that "we had to hire an Arabic tutor" for Young Master X -- a way of signalling just how "Western" they are.

Now why do you think that is? Why do Muslims, who remain so proud of Islam, not find that in their own countries, they wish to send their own children to Muslim schools? Why are not the Muslims in this town in Scotland sending their children even to the state schools?

And here's one more thing. One suspects that some of those parents would secretly prefer that the school remain under rational, i.e. un-Islamic, control and ownership. Their kids will get a better education. And there will be plenty of time to make sure that they still hate Infidels, still will "not take Christians and Jews as their friends," and will put that education to good use -- as Tariq Ramadan did his -- in order to work for the greater power, influence, and ultimately, dominance, of the Muslims. A few won't; a very few will fall away -- but Islam is a system of such total brainwashing, in whcih fear of either physical punishment or social ostracism (imagine being treated by your family as an enemy for the rest of your life) can hold people in check.

Posted by: Hugh at January 17, 2006 8:36 AM

In their suggestion to downgrade this Catholic School from a Christian institution into and Islamic one, these Muslims are showing a lot of hutzpah...

Posted by: jsla at January 17, 2006 12:01 PM

It is only natural that the Church would in this manner pay the Jizyah to the Moslems. Self-defeat on this scale is a very large and complicated project, and it is high time that the new Pope step in and do his part.

MORE MOSLEMS MORE ISLAM MORE MOSLEMS MORE ISLAM MORE MOSLEMS MORE

Stuff like this is the fruit borne of the idiocy of regarding Islam as a religion when it is no such thing.

Posted by: Alarmed Pig Farmer at January 17, 2006 12:47 PM

There's a lot of fuss, but probably about nothing. Assuming that we are talking about a private school, Mr Saeed may bitch and moan all he wants: he will get nothing. If he wants Muslims to go to Muslim schools, I am sure that Britain is probably already infested with that sort of teaching facilities. He can't, however, force a private institution to change just because he wants to. It's pretty much like owning an ordinary restaurant that is frequented by vegetarian costumers, and suddenly one of those costumers demands that the restaurant limit the menu to vegetarian food. "Don't like it, go eat somewhere else".

What is most likely irritating Mr Saeed is knowing that Muslim children are going to mass and participating in other Christian rituals. To bad.

Posted by: cruzado at January 17, 2006 1:08 PM

Once again Muslims are trying to appropriate what others have created. They've done that throughout their history. Islam is essentially a parasitic phenomenon, and the rise of Islam the greatest man-made disaster in human history.

Posted by: Herb K at January 17, 2006 5:54 PM

It seems St Alberts is not a private/independent school but a state one:

http://www.hmie.gov.uk/institute.asp?typ=2&ins=7065

St Albert's Primary School
36 Maxwell Drive
Glasgow
G41 5DU
Tel: 0141 4291983
Type: Local Authority

Posted by: Silvester at January 17, 2006 6:53 PM

In the whole story there is something that intrigues me. As far as I am aware Catholic schools are usually very strict as to their admission criteria, giving absolute priority to Catholic children, then if any places left other Christian children are accepted and lastly non-Christain kids. Does the fact that 90% of pupils at St Albert's Primary are Muslim indictate that there are not enough Catholic/Christian pupils in the area???? Scary!

Posted by: Polish infideless at January 18, 2006 4:07 AM