Here is the story, in the only version acceptable to the British media, the one that malevolently misrepresents the truth of the matter:
Parents should be banned from pulling their children out of religious education classes because they are preventing students from learning about Islam, the Church of England has warned.
Derek Holloway, the Church’s lead on religious education (RE) policy, said that those with “fundamentalist” religious beliefs are “exploiting” laws which give them the right to withdraw children from the lessons, in order to stop them from learning about the Muslim faith.
He said that parents are using a “dubious interpretation of human right legislation” to pull students out of the classes, warning that such actions create a “dangerous” precedent.
Mr Holloway, who taught at comprehensive schools in Essex and Wiltshire before taking up his current post in the C of E’s education office, said that the right to withdraw children from RE lessons risks being hijacked by those who want to “incite religious hatred.”
Youngsters must learn about other religions and world views so that they know how to get along with people from different backgrounds and beliefs, Mr Holloway said.
RE lessons, along with other school subjects, can help efforts to combat extremism and foster better community relations, he added.
Writing in a blog on the Church of England’s Facebook page, he said: “Sadly, and dangerously, the right of withdrawal from RE is now being exploited by a range of ‘interest groups’ often using a dubious interpretation of human rights legislation.
“The right of withdrawal form RE now gives comfort to those who are breaking the law and seeking to incite religious hatred”.
The Church believes the right for parents to withdraw children from RE should be repealed and a national statement of a child’s entitlement to RE lessons should be drawn up.
Mr Holloway said that the right to withdraw students from RE lessons “perpetuates the myth” that the classes are in some way linked to collective worship, when in fact they contribute to a “broad and balanced curriculum” by teaching children about a range of faiths and beliefs.
“Through RE teacher social media forums and feedback from our RE advisers, I am aware that some parents have sought to exploit the right to withdraw children from RE lessons,” Mr Holloway told the Press Association.
“This is seemingly because they do not want their children exposed to other faiths and world views, in particular Islam.
“We are concerned that this is denying those pupils the opportunity to develop the skills they need to ‘live well together’ as adults.”
This also puts schools in an “impossible position” as they have to show Ofsted inspectors they are preparing pupils for life in modern Britain, Mr Holloway warned.
“Anecdotally, there have also been some cases in different parts of the country of parents with fundamentalist religious beliefs also taking a similar course,” he said.
“This is not confined to any one particular religion or area of the country. ”
“The Church of England is far from alone in this view and we support the broad consensus across the sector – both from teachers and RE advisers – that the right of withdrawal from RE is being exploited by a minority and should now be reviewed.”…
It’s not hard to read between the lines here. What some parents object to is not education but miseducation. That is not the same thing, pace the egregious Mr. Holloway, as “inciting religious hatred.” His contempt for them is clear; they won’t get with the program. But these parents are not fools, nor indifferent to what their children are being taught. If they were indifferent, they would not go to the trouble (and risk the media’s mocking coverage, not to mention Mr. Holloway’s malignity) of pulling their children out of RE, as is their right. And it is because they are not fools that they are appalled at how Islam is being presented, and that is why they are taking their children out of RE classes, which for Mr. Holloway constitutes “inciting religious hatred.”
What exercises them is that the Islam presented in the RE classes is a sanitized version, the one favored by Karen Armstrong, CAIR, John Esposito, and Mr. Holloway himself. They are not trying “to stop [their children] from learning about the Muslim faith.” They are trying to prevent their children – young,, impressionable — from being lied to about “the Muslim faith.” And this business of “youngsters” who “must learn about other religions…so that they know how to get along with people from different backgrounds and beliefs” necessarily requires imposing a misleading account of Islam, for if the unappetizing truth about the texts and teachings of Islam were conveyed, these students would recoil in horror. And then how would they “get along with” Muslims which is apparently the whole point of the RE classes? But should that, in any case, be the goal? Is that what schools are now supposed to do – hide the truth about Islam for the greater good of industrial-strength why-can’t-we-all-get-alongness? If teachers, themselves under terrific pressure to conform to the party line on Islam, convey falsehoods, delaying the day when these Infidel children will be able to make sense of Muslim attitudes and behavior, that’s no reason for the parents, who still have some control (that is, they can remove their children from these RE classes), not to exercise it. Why should the parents play along with this feelgood farce to please the derek-holloways of this world?
Don’t we already know exactly what is going to be taught about Islam in these RE courses? Of course we do. There will be, first of all, the bland declaration that Islam means “peace” and we should, boys and girls, all remember that, given that so many bigots and Islamophobes try to convince us that Islam preaches violence. Then it’s on to the Five Pillars: Shehada (the declaration of faith), Salat (the five daily prayers), Sawm (the fasting at Ramadan), Zakat (charitable giving) and Hajj (the pilgrimage every Muslim who can afford it should make to Mecca once in his life). So you see: Muslims are just like Christians and Jews, with your fastings, your prayers, your pilgrimages, your charitable giving. Not really much of a difference. And what fun to learn those exotic words. Or try on a hijab. Or prostrate yourself in pretend prayer, “just to see what it feels like to be a Muslim.”
Who in the classroom, what student, will know enough to ask the right questions? Who will ask about what is said in those daily prayers, and whether it is true – Mr. Holloway, what about it? – that seventeen times a day, in those prayers, Muslims curse the Kuffar as they recite the al-Fatiha, the opening verse of the Qur’an? Or is this something Mr. Holloway doesn’t think people need to know about — it just complicates matters. Indeed it does. Nor will anyone ask why the Zakat is given only to fellow Muslims, while non-Muslims practice omnidirectional charity?
And what else will be par for the predictable mini-course on Islam? At least two verses from the Qur’an will without fail make their deceptive appearance.. The first, 5:32, appears to denounce killing. That’s why it has been such a favorite for Barack Obama, George Bush, Pope Francis, and so many others determined to see Islam in its most favorable light. But 5:32 is modified and fatally vitiated by the verse that immediately follows, 5:33, that contains a list of methods of killing those who “wage war against Allah and his messenger” or “spread mischief in the land.” However, it is only 5:32 that the students will learn about, and be told, yet again, that this verse proves the “peacefulness” of Islam.
Then students will learn about Qur’an 2:256: “There should be no compulsion in religion.” This sounds good. But what teacher is going to say, in today’s atmosphere of groupthink and with the thought police patrolling the offices of Ofsted, that “you must understand that the verse does not mean quite what you think.” Instead, they will be told to tell their pupils that “one Muslim scholar has rightly said that 2:256 is a “charter of freedom of conscience unparalleled in the religious annals of mankind.” Who among the students will know enough, who among the teachers will both know enough and be brave enough, to mention that despite the words of 2:256 (which some scholars claim is one of the “abrogated” verses), it does not mean what it appears to mean, for at least two reasons? First, because the punishment for apostasy in Islam is death. For Muhammad said in a hadith (Bukhari 9.84.57): “Whoever changed (from) his Islamic religion, then kill him.” It’s a punishment that’s meted out even today, by both governments and Muslim vigilantes. The threat of death keeps some, perhaps many, from leaving Islam, and certainly constitutes “compulsion in religion.” Christians and Jews under Islam face another kind of compulsion. They are given the choice of conversion or death or, if they want to remain Christians and Jews, they must submit to a host of disabilities, including, most significantly, the onerous Jizyah, or capitation tax. Over time, many Christians and Jews must have converted to Islam in order to free themselves from the Jizyah and other burdens, which means they, too, whether or not they convert, must endure “compulsion in religion.”
We can predict exactly what further evasions and untruths will constitute this RE unit on Islam. And we can also predict all the things about Islam that won’t, that can’t, be said, if the goal of making everybody “get along” is to be achieved.
We already know – see above – that 2:256 and 5:32 will be deliberately misinterpreted. We know that the students will not be told about the cursing of the Kuffars during the daily prayers, or that the zakat is to be given only to fellow Muslims. And we also know that no RE teacher will be allowed to quote even one of those many verses in the Qur’an that denounce the Unbelievers (Miscreants, Kuffar, Infidels) and exclusively praise Muslims. What teacher would dare to mention the Qur’an’s description of Infidels as “the vilest of creatures”(98:6) or of the Muslims as “the best of peoples” (3:110)? What student, whether six or sixteen, would know enough to ask in class about these verses? Or even if he (or she) did know, given the fear of being considered a “bigot” or an “Islamophobe,” would any student dare ask such a question? And how would the teacher, well aware of what is the party line on Islam, answer in response?
Would the students be taught that in the Qur’an Muslims are told not to take Jews and Christians as friends “for they are friends only with each other”? No, of course not. That would only make it more difficult to engage in why-can’t-we-all-get-alongness. The more unpleasant the truth, the more likely it will not be told. Will students be told about 9:5, the Verse of the Sword? Or about the more than one hundred verses in the Qur’an that exhort “violent Jihad”? And won’t that word “Jihad” be glossed in true karen-armstrong style, for these innocent students, as having “for its primary meaning” the Jihad of internal spiritual struggle, rather than the “lesser Jihad” of waging war, with sword and scimitar, against the Infidels? Of course they will be told about how Muhammad himself, returning home from a military campaign, said he was returning from the Lesser to the Greater Jihad. What student would know enough to ask “But doesn’t that come from a hadith found in one of the less trustworthy collections”? And further ask: “Don’t most Islamic authorities agree that the most important Jihad is the ‘struggle,’ ordinarily using violence, to remove all obstacles to the spread, and then to the dominance, of Islam?” It is the impossibility of this kind of question being raised, much less answered, that makes parents want to pluck their children out of these units on Islam, rather than have them endure so much nonsense, so much evasion, so many lies.
There is, however, something the parents involved – the ones who are being vilified by Mr. Holloway as know-nothing inciters of hatred – might do along with, or perhaps before, withdrawing their students from RE classes. They might bring to the attention of the public what the RE unit on Islam conveys or omits, to let them know exactly what these parents find objectionable. They could hold a press conference, passing out copies of a collective letter they have sent to Mr. Holloway, as a sober response to his name-calling, a letter which should contain a detailed list of what they find disturbing in what is being taught about Islam in RE classes, and explaining exactly why they feel compelled to withdraw their children which, they need to insist, has nothing to do with “inciting hatred” and everything to do with the campaign of disinformation in the schools.
What would such a letter contain? It would request a review, by an independent authority, of what it is that Mr. Holloway and his ilk are presenting in the RE unit on Islam. There would be a list of questions. Why are the Five Pillars given, but no mention made of the cursing of Kuffars in the daily prayers, or discussion of why Zakat is given only to fellow Muslims. Why do the teachers quote 5:32 but not 5:33, to make it appear that Islam condemns killing of the innocent when there are dozens of verses calling for killing the Kuffar? Why are the students told about 2:256 (“there is no compulsion in religion”) without any mention of the punishment – death – for any Muslim who changes his religion, nor any mention of what Jews and Christians must endure if they wish to continue to practice their religion, both of which constitute obvious forms of “compulsion”?
They can ask Mr. Holloway to explain why the RE unit on Islam leaves out all mention of the 109 Qur’anic verses about violent Jihad. In fact, he should be asked how “Jihad” itself is presented to the students, what they are told about it being mainly an “internal spiritual struggle” and not a “struggle” to overcome obstacles to the spread, and dominance, of Islam that must continue until the entire world is ruled by Muslims, and the Sharia imposed everywhere. And while we’re at it, what are they told about the significance, and contents, of the Sharia?
Their letter should ask Mr. Holloway to explain why there is no mention in the Islam unit of RE about Muhammad as a slave-owner. Nor is there any mention of his marriage to little Aisha, consummated when she was nine years old. Is it because both bits of information would disturb the non-Muslim students? Place Muhammad, and hence Islam, in a bad light? Of course. But how else can one understand either the long history of slavery and of child marriage in Islam, without reference to the behavior of Muhammad, for Muslims the Perfect Man and Model of Conduct?
Why, Mr. Holloway may be asked in the Open Letter, is there no explanation of Muslim punishment for blasphemy (such as, most obviously, the killing of Theo van Gogh, or the Charlie Hebdo massacre) by reference to how Muhammad regarded those who mocked him – Asma bint Marwan, Abu ‘Afak, Ka’b bin al-Ashraf are the best known of those blasphemers — and whom he had killed. Why does the RE course, the letter should also ask, not mention anything about Muhammad’s many military campaigns? Why not a word about Muhammad’s taking part in the decapitation of between 600 and 900 prisoners of the Banu Qurayza? Why no mention of what happened to the inoffensive Jewish farmers of the Khaybar Oasis, nor about the torture that was inflicted on a Khaybar Jew, Kinana,to get him to produce treasure he supposedly had hidden – “Torture him until you extract what he has” was Muhammad’s command. These are rhetorical questions; we all know the answer. Still, it will be useful to make Derek Holloway squirm, as he attempts to justify the omission of practically everything of importance in the RE coverage of Muhammad and of Islam.
The Open Letter to Mr. Holloway should contain copious citations, both to Qur’anic verses and to hadith, to support every claim. Derek Holloway now must either confirm the truth and relevance of these passages, or pretend that they shouldn’t really matter because they are not “helpful” which is true. They are not “helpful” if the goal is only to teach students to “get along” rather than to convey the truth, however distasteful it may be, about many aspects of Islam. In either case, it is not the truth-telling parents, but the evasive Holloway, who comes away looking bad.
As for Holloway’s charge that these parents who withdraw their children are giving “comfort to those” who are “seeking to incite religious hatred,” by way of rebuttal the parents’ letter should list what really does incite religious hatred – to wit, many verses in the Qur’an, many stories in the Hadith collections. The parents’ letter will have already noted that the Qur’an tells Muslims not to take Jews and Christians as friends (5:51), that they are called in the Qur’an the “vilest of creatures,” (98:6), and that repeatedly there are calls to “strike terror” in the hearts of Infidels or to kill them. And just to be sure that Mr. Holloway does not minimize the matter, quote just a handful of the most telling Qur’anic verses which Mr. Holloway will have to explain or attempt to explain away. Here are four:
Quran (2:191-193) –
“And kill them wherever you find them, and turn them out from where they have turned you out. And Al-Fitnah [disbelief or unrest] is worse than killing… but if they desist, then lo! Allah is forgiving and merciful. And fight them until there is no more Fitnah[disbelief and worshipping of others along with Allah] and worship is for Allah alone..
Quran (3:151) – “Soon shall We cast terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers, for that they joined companions with Allah.”
Quran (5:33) – “The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His messenger and strive to make mischief in the land is only this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides or they should be imprisoned; this shall be as a disgrace for them in this world, and in the hereafter they shall have a grievous chastisement.”
Quran (8:12) – “I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them.”
How about that for “inciting religious hatred”? How do those compare with dissatisfied parents pulling their children out of classes that they believe are merely exercises in pro-Islam propaganda? Would Mr. Holloway concede that the “religious hatred” he claims to find encouraged by the behavior of those long-suffering parents is, in fact, to be found all over the Qur’an?
Perhaps the egregious Mr. Holloway will concede that the parents have a point, that perhaps some aspects of Islam are scanted in the RE unit on Islam and need to be addressed, and perhaps what is presented is far too rosy. But I doubt that anything will move him toward something like the truth. On Islam, he’s purely a Podsnap:
“…Mr Podsnap settled that whatever he put behind him he put out of existence. There was a dignified conclusiveness–not to add a grand convenience–in this way of getting rid of disagreeables which had done much towards establishing Mr Podsnap in his lofty place in Mr Podsnap’s satisfaction. ‘I don’t want to know about it; I don’t choose to discuss it; I don’t admit it!’ Mr Podsnap had even acquired a peculiar flourish of his right arm in often clearing the world of its most difficult problems, by sweeping them behind him (and consequently sheer away) with those words and a flushed face. For they affronted him.”
That’s Derek Holloway, a Podsnap for the present age, dismissing disagreeables. And that’s why the parents are performing a service by removing their children from these propaganda classes, and they could perform an even bigger one by bringing to the British public’s attention what’s in, and what’s kept out, of these staggeringly meretricious courses.
Berengaria says
The indoctrination of Islam just seems to be the Only Important Study that is being followed in UK, Europe & North America. Only “Foolish” Parents would dare redraw their children from the “RELIGION OF PEACE”.
Phony Islam & WORSE, Dangerous Islam,is taught to the Children who will submit to Islam in the future,
Parents should be prepared to fight for their Children’s Survival in Future UK,Europe & North America, as Christian Warriors, NOT PATHETIC SLAVES TO ISLAM.
DAMNED the TEACHERS, AUTHORITIES & CHURCH OF ENGLAND! TRAITORS!
mortimer says
Disagree with Berengaria. Not all CofE leaders are so SHALLOW and UNSTUDIED about Islam as Derek Holloway. The present archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby actually gets it about jihad and the war against Christianity. Rev. Mark Durie of Australia is a leading theologian for the Counterjihad. He has exposed the DHIMMI THEOLOGY, the so-called, spurious ‘Abrahamic religion’ theory. Three religions have three quite different versions of Abraham. So the supposed commonality is imaginary at best.
IT’S TIME FOR YOU, MR. HOLLOWAY TO READ SOMETHING ABOUT THE HISTORY OF JIHAD and LEARN how the Christian church has been repeatedly MARTYRED, slain, persecuted, raped, burnt, plundered and assassinated by Islam.
When you finish your REQUIRED READING, Mr. Holloway, you won’t have any whitewash or sugar-coating for Islam.
LEARN THE HISTORY OF JIHAD!
Itinerant says
Welby does not ‘get it’.
Gavin Ashenden the Queen’s chaplain who resigned, somewhat ironically, to defend his faith and to protest a Koranic reading in a church, which incidentally was of a specific verse that denies the basis of Christianity says the exact opposite and explains why:
“Welby doesn’t get it”
http://www.anglican.ink/article/welby-doesnt-get-it-gavin-ashenden-finds
David Pimentel says
An appropriate acronym for Religion of Peace is RoPe, which is exactly with what its adherents wish to hang all dissenters.
mortimer says
What does Derek Holloway actually know about Islam’s PRIMARY SOURCE TEXTS? Has he even READ ONE of those texts?
I suspect that like MOST elites, he knows SWEET BUGGERALL about Islam’s source texts, probably he has not even heard their NAMES, let alone studied their contents.
Such a total LACUNA of knowledge about what he is PROMOTING is nothing less than CULPABLE NEGLIGENCE.
Derek Holloway is a useful idiot, defined as a person who promotes something without UNDERSTANDING WHAT IT IS or what it TEACHES.
Derek Holloway would NOT demand that children learn the MASTER RACE THEORY OF HITLER, but he commands vulnerable children to learn the MASTER RELIGION THEORY OF MOHAMMED the pedophile pirate.
If anything, British children need to be WARNED OFF ISLAM, not given the WHITEWASHED, SUGAR-COATED VERSION of Islam.
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND HAS A MORAL DUTY TO TELL THE TRUTH ABOUT ISLAMIC SUPREMACISM AND MISOGYNY.
Kay says
Agreed.
They have been given instructions to tell all about Christ, the hope in Jesus.
They are worse than traitors if they teach Islam instead.
Annak says
And as far as I know Muslim parents DO have the right to remove their children from RE and even music and gym lessons. We can’t see this man refusing them can we ??
We never had this years ago being forced to learn about i.e.the Hindu or Sikh faith, not much anyway, and they never complained either. They knew they lived in a Christian country.
We never had any problrms with them whatsoever. Only with Islam, as they do too, as everyone does.
Custos Custodum says
This is NOT a misguided effort by a hapless staffer, but yet another TRIAL BALLOON launched at the direction of higher-ups in the CofE hierarchy.
Note the tell-tale disclaimer added by an internal committee:
jewdog says
The parents should propose that the curriculum include some of Robert’s books with a requirement that Mr. Podsnap read them, and be able to discuss the contents to prove it, before they send their kids back. Failing that, it’ll be torches and pitchforks from the outraged peasantry.
ed cox says
I feel sorry for the people of England and the EU as there leaders seem bent on turning them into muslim states
Wellington says
I agree that the young in the West should learn about Islam, as they should learn about other totalitarian ideologies like Nazism and Marxism. But ONLY if such ideologies are described accurately. To date, and overwhelmingly, Islam has not been described accurately here in the West——-not by the last four Prime Ministers of the UK, not by the present Pope, not by the current Prime Minister of Canada, certainly not by the previous American President, not by the Republican Speaker of the House here in America, surely not by Angela Merkel, not by that great buddy of liberty and fair play, Vladimir Putin, and not by……, and not by………, and not by………
Misinformation about malevolence is a terrible thing. My God, Mr. Podsnaps like Derek Holloway are all over the place making excuses for an ideology which would crush the best of the West if only given the chance. The Podsnaps of the West are in full and stupid throttle giving Islam this chance. Shame on them forever.
mortimer says
Accurate description of Islam? Islam (submission) is a euphemism for enslavement, the opposite of our Western civilization based on individual rights and freedoms and the intrinsic worth of the person.
Enslavement as a sociological principles means that the individual has no intrinsic worth. Islam create not create the modern codes of UNIVERSAL RIGHTS, because slaves have no rights.
Islam is enslavement. Enslavement as a psychological principle is emotional and physical violence, bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, sadomasochism.
The great hidden appeal Islam is sadomasochism.
simpleton1 says
It is the curriculum that is the real problem that needs to reflect the truth
Of course the full history of Islam should be taught, like ;-
It is thought that Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People (Book V, Chapter XXIV) includes a reference to the Battle of Poitiers: “…a dreadful plague of Saracens ravaged France with miserable slaughter, but they not long after in that country received the punishment due to their wickedness”
Believed to be in reference to “Battle of Tours”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tours
There would be many British saints, ministers theologians, reverends etc. with some reference to islamic knowledge.
Could the parents make every one aware of those sainted characters in the class room.
An interesting book and about the experiences of the British and touched on was Reverend Devereux Spratt who kept bringing the good word to Christians in Algiers after his ransom. “Piracy and the English Government 1616–1642: Policy-Making under the Early
https://tinyurl.com/lqxtw8b
Interesting reading of what the slaves had to endure in the pages before the mention of Spratt.
Will Richards says
Good stuff!
Mark Spahn (West Seneca, NY) says
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2017/04/26/ban-parents-pulling-children-religious-education-classes-church/
was written by Camilla Turner, the Education Editor of the UK newspaper the Telegraph. For an education editor, she has written a remarkably ambiguous opening sentence (or maybe the blame should be assigned to Derek Holloway, the Church of England’s “lead” on religious education (RE), whom she may be quoting or paraphrasing):
“Parents should be banned from pulling their children out of religious education classes because they are preventing students from learning about Islam, the Church of England has warned. ”
Let’s consider the various way this sentence can be understood:
[1] Parents should be banned from pulling their children out of RE classes, because RE classes [are so biased that they] are preventing students from learning about Islam.
[2] Parents should be banned from pulling their children out of RE classes, because the parents [thereby] are preventing students from learning about Islam.
[3] Parents should be banned from pulling their children out of RE classes for the reason that RE classes are preventing students from learning about Islam.
[4] Parents should be banned from pulling their children out of RE classes for the reason that the parents are preventing students from learning about Islam.
The four possibilities come from the twofold ambiguity of both “they” and whether “because” refers to “banned” or rather to “pulling out”.
There is much else that is unclear too, at least to a reader who is unfamiliar with the UK education system. Such as:
* What does religious education (RE) include? Which religions are covered? Is Scientology covered? Mormonism? The religions of the natives of North America and Siberia? And what is taught about each religion?
* When a child is pulled out of RE class, what does the child do? Study something else? Take a nap? Play in the school’s playground?
* Do Muslim parents ever withdraw their children from RE class?
* Does the Church of England want to force Muslim children to memorize the tenets of kafir religions?
* Is Islam taught in RE class, and if so, which version of Islam? Sunni? Shia? Ahmadiya? Does RE class give students a proper grounding in sharia rulings on riba, isbaal, rajm, etc.?
Will Richards says
Well said Mark!
Alarmed Pig Farmer says
Here’s how this whole deal works: you act as if salient facts don’t exist and insist on inculcating others with a cleansed fictive reality. The beneficiaries won’t blow you up or stab you for doing this because the inculcation is to force innocents to accept a false version of a dangerous reality. Everybody wins: the Podsnaps get their self-satisfaction, the hairy ones get to see the Infidels to inculcate their own children with Sharia. Oh, not everybody. I guess things don’t turn out so well for the Infidels in the transaction.
Brian Hunter says
I believe this man is one of those who see Islam as the 3rd great Abrahamic faith, meaning he believes that Muslims worship the same God as do Jews and Christians. The sheer number of contemporary Christians who suffer from this delusion makes me wonder if this might be the “great delusion” the apostle Paul spoke of in 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12.
Monty says
Brian, I would agree wholeheartedly. I’m 65. I was born again in 1971. Since that time I’ve seen a big decline in real spirituality and a massive increase in the influence of Islam. For many years I was an observer, seeing without understanding what was going on. I know a Christian the UK who works for a charity that resettles Muslims. That is not “loving your enemy”. It is welcoming the anti-Christ into your midst. The world is obviously deluded also. I read “1984”, a disturbing and bleak story of totalitarian regimes. I was comforted by knowing that it could not happen to the west because we would not accept such a regime. Wrong. Winston’s job was to rewrite history to suit the regime. Again, I said, no one would accept that! Wrong again. Truth has been consigned to the scrapheap to be replaced by lies, deception, misconstruing and deliberate confusion. Islam marches through this fog and is taking over the world. Christians should know better. it’s all in the Book! But many have also ditched the bible as the authority. So we are getting exactly what the Bible foretold. The only hope is that Christians wake up before it is too late. This is a spiritual war behind the obvious and outward manifestations. Time to fight, brethren!
Charli Main says
Satan is currently running interference for His Muslim tools. Islam is the tool that He uses to spread, death, darkness and destruction throughout the world.
utis says
Poor old dumb me. I used to believe modern Europe was a democracy, that believed in freedom. Freedom from religion should be one of those freedoms. It does seem that “Post-Modern” Europe is not a democracy. The secular and religious authorities are preparing the peons for Dar-al-Islam.
A lot of pre-WWII European leadership cuddled up to Hitler, but they didn’t import millions of German Nazis into their country to fight a war in the streets. It would be a reasonable act for the peons now to fight their elites in their neighborhoods (you know, the neighborhoods where the police come instantly when called, where only “immigrants” of the highest caliber reside, where the imams know not to send their little jihadis to kill and maim). It the peons (a.k.a. taxpayer) who pay their regular salaries. I know that Shoddy Arabia and the other oil sheikhs pay the big bribes.
Bindon Blood says
As a child in England in the 1950s we were taught about Christianity and had a Christian morning assembly.This certainly did not harm any of us ,quite the contrary in fact. We grew up with a strong sense of morality and Christian duty to others.Teach children Christianity;it will only benefit them. Study islam as the children get older but as an academic subject which searches out the truth of Islam and its appalling record and tenets.
gravenimage says
Hugh Fitzgerald: Derek Holloway, A Podsnap For the Present Age
…………………..
Wonderful reference. Of course, even Mr. Podsnap was not as harmful to the children unfortunate enough to suffer his dreary pedagogy.
And of course the children are subjected to the most appalling whitewash of Islam.
Cross says
I am a US Federal Government civilian employee and I am required to take several online courses on Islam and the Muslim faith annually. Yep, I learn that it is a religion of peace. I am required to learn about the five pillars and then in particular to learn several specifics about the Salat, Ramadan and the Hajj. This is to increase my sensitivity. For example, I am taught that Muslims traveling to the Hajj may be tired as it is a long trip, and during Ramadan they may be hungry. I should understand and be sensitive to a faithful Muslim’s struggle for adherence.
(Also required to take one course on Sikhism. Five fundamentals, Kesa (long hair, which is never cut). This term is sometimes used to refer to the turban that is used to cover the hair, Kangah (comb), Kacha (short pants), Kara (metal bracelet), Kirpan (a ceremonial dagger)).
Interestingly there are no required courses for Christianity or Judaism. There are no voluntary courses offered in those religions either. It is difficult to find any reference to Christianity or Judaism in any US Government workplace. These religions are excluded specifically as teaching about them would be a violation of “the separation of church and state.” And any question as to why, or request to have a course added to our “Learning Plan” or “Online Course Catalog” is simply dismissed with a curt wave of the hand.
I often wear a t-shirt with the word INFIDEL silk-screened in bold print on the front under my uniform as a silent protest.
mortimer says
PRESIDENT TRUMP should end the religious discrimination imposed by Obama in favor of Islam.
The five pillars of Islam don’t hurt anyone.
ONLY THE SIXTH PILLAR OF ISLAM (JIHAD) is ESSENTIAL LEARNING fir all government workers and they are NOT teaching JIHAD to government employees.
Without a perfect understanding of JIHAD, government employees cannot RECOGNIZE and IDENTIFY JIHADISTS in their WORKPLACE and then REPORT THEM.
Will Richards says
That shit has Obama the secret muslim written all over it. I hope you ensure the President’s office is aware so that this islam bullshit is stopped
Cross says
Thank you sir. I am working on notification all the way up the chain but discretely as intent is easily mistaken for a terribly misguided motive.
Kepha says
Cross–I remember serving in the State Dept. 1989-1995, and learning all about the kindly and gentle “Monsoon Islam” as opposed to the nasty “Desert Islam”, and how Sufis were wonderful people because they dialogued with Quakers. It was all sheer and utter hogwash. You’ve got my prayers, friend.
Cross says
Thanks to all of you. I should probably add that the basic curriculum was begun during the Bush Administration with the main thrust being; “Racial profiling is wrong, and we will end it in America.” Personally I agree wholeheartedly with that statement. But the immigration policy then was that where there was a valid concern or history of potential criminality, or terrorism, extra scrutiny was authorized. During the Obama administration the ‘sensitivity’ courses required grew in both length, breadth, and number, and any call for extra scrutiny is itself closely scrutinized.
But again, thanks for your support. As for me, I’m good. Thick skinned and with a strong supply of t-shirts.
Cross says
BTW……..the Quakers have a nice saying……..”As ye pray, move your feet.” I’ve always taken it as a call to action, to put the prayers in motion. A lot of friends in the DSS I’ve gotten to work with on occasion. Great bunch of hard chargin’ professionals.
gravenimage says
Appalling, Cross.
Michael Copeland says
“Youngsters must learn about other religions”, insists Mr. Holloway.
Tell them, Mr. Holloway, how Islam regards Christianity and Judaism:
“It is unbelief (kufr) to hold that the remnant cults now bearing the names of formerly valid religions such as “Christianity” and “Judaism” are acceptable….”
Manual of Islamic Law, “Reliance of the Traveller”, w4.
Will Richards says
This disingenuous Holloway should be concerning himself with ensuring muslim children are taught about Christianity, in an honest and impartial way, in muslim schools. This remains, in spite of the best efforts of deluded people like him, a non muslim country, so where the hell are his concerns about the hatred for, and intolerance of Christianity and Judaism, so many muslims are indoctrinated with?
mortimer says
Teach Muslim children the doctrines of England’s ESTABLISHED CHURCH.
Kepha says
Better yet, of Scotland’s–as received in the Year of Grace 1647 and enshrined in the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms Larger and Shorter.
Still, even if my sympathies are with Jennie Geddes rather than the crown-appointed bishop at whom she threw her stool, the older CoE Thirty-nine Articles are FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR better than the sanitized picture of proto-Bahai’ism (oops, Islam) that Podsnap wants to impose on British school kids.
Mark says
I wonder what he thinks about Islamic schools having to teach about other religions (and I don’t mean the current teaching that they are pigs and monkeys)?
Frank Courtney says
Email derek.holloway@churchofengland.org
Will Richards says
Thanks Frank…good idea!
mortimer says
I wrote to Holloway. Thanks.
Frank Courtney says
You’re welcome Will and Mortimer.
I wrote to him too including Hugh’s main arguments.
Will Richards says
I’ve written to him too!
Elaine McMurren says
I am completely out of sympathy for the Brits. If you want to off yourselves, have at it. It is very disturbing that school children are being placed on the front line of this contrived conflict. America is no better. Telling the truth gets you nothing but trouble. I really don’t care anymore.
Will Richards says
I feel the same as you Elaine…and I am an Englishman! What you have to understand however is that there are millions of Brits like me, who are so angry about islam constantly being projected and protected by spineless and/or clueless politicians, echoed often by the naive young student types of the left.
carpediadem says
WEll then, run for office and set up a grassroots movement to support it! nothing else will work!
Elaine McMurren says
Oh, it’s May 1! This used to be a special day to honor Our Lady. I wonder what evil stunt Franny Baby has planned for today.
Carolyne says
Lady who?
Guest says
I’m with Hollowbrain on this.
Parents denying their little darlings a slice of wholesome Islam ………. outrageous !!
If need be, damn it ….. strap the little darlings to a chair, put an end to this anti-ROP, if they still don’t listen then punish them till they do, use Islamic methods to teach Islam …. brilliant.
They WILL learn …. we’ll make sure they do…… or ELSE
gravenimage says
Grimly hilarious, Guest.
Lodesman says
The Clerics question is: Under the ‘Golden Rule’ and the ‘turn the other cheek’ teaching of Jesus, are we obliged to allow children to be taught Islamic doctrine? The answer is no because we must not render evil to our children. Refusing to have our children indoctrinated in Islam is not an evil act toward Muslims.
carol says
Excellently obvious!
Terry says
“They’re converting your kids to Islam!” Muslims infiltrating our education
https://youtu.be/qQNYjFE7WW4
Rob says
‘Masterful’. Thank you Hugh
gravenimage says
Second.
RK says
WOW – ANOTHER CLEAR CUT EXAMPLE IN THE INDOCTRINATION OF A CULTURE/SO-CALLED RELIGION THAT IS NOT OUR OWN PUSHED UPON OUR CHILDREN, WOW! SAY NO! NO! NO!
Infovoyeur says
One of Hugh’s very best–and very, very needed. HOWEVER, how can we expect officials like the one described here, to comprehend “the true” Islam? Standing in his way are the formidable obstacles of: great motivation / commitment needed but usually absent… time and energy… a clear head psychologically… frank research skills to sort out truth from chaff (mainstream media either ignores or whitewashes, etc., etc.)… personal ability to see the hideous truth and not then R.E.A.D. (resist evade avoid deny)… problems among your peer group if you talk about this… no country-wide focus on this from the government such as existed when Pres. Roosevelt’s radio talk on Mon., Dec. 8, 1941…– oh, and that was concerning a Threat of War clearly visible and comprehended…..
These perhaps preventing people from seeing the inhumane truth of “Mohammad” above as he describes Stages of Conquest thru creeping sharia, so clearly. (As begins and continues in Europe–but how to learn about that, eh?). AND note that Mohammad’s opposition here finally asked M. just why do you believe in Islam? And upon that or earlier, M. signed out and did not reply.
Which makes me think that my causal analysis of why our non-response, above, might pair well with an also-multiplex analysis of WHY Islam is so strong and successful, its “terrifying brilliance” as Citizen Warrior well analyses. S/he mentions two dozen factors, yes apostasy and other… but I finally think that the one reason is “early childhood conditioning plus adult social group control.” How can one believe in this doctrine so strongly, except that from Day One, it and it alone is presented, all other doctrines slandered, and questioning met with ostracism or death?
But alas–Mohammad’s predictions of takeover is the future. (Oh, and note that the other commenter(s) cannot even SEE, the truth of this as stated calmly and clearly by Mohammad…..)
chris says
And are Muslim pupils forced to learn about Christianity – you know, the faith that is prevalent in the west? Or are their parents allowed to withdraw their kids from lessons dealing with other religions? Or have things gone so far that there are no more Christian symbols in our schools, or Christian festivals celebrated, or indeed any positive reference to Christianity allowed?
And most importantly why have our governments caved in so completely to the demands of Islam? I am sure there are many Muslims who came to the west in the hope of escaping the creeping radicalisation in their own countries to find that it is even worse here than in many of the countries they have come from and that our authorities will not protect them or us if we try to hang onto what is left of our civilisation through protest. And our freedom of speech is being removed from us too leaving us weak and ripe for replacement