IFTIKHAR Ahmad, of the London School of Islamics, has launched yet another broadside against the British educational system, accusing it of “cultural fascism”.
Ahmad, who is almost adept as Stephen “Birdshit” Green when it comes to issuing foolish press statements, caught our attention yesterday with an email headed Muslim Children and Sex Education.
In it he laments the fact that a group of Muslim parents face possible prosecution for withdrawing their children from gay and lesbian lessons given earlier this year at the George Tomlinson School in Waltham Forest, East London.
Pervez Latif withdrew sons Saleh (left) and Abdur-Rahim from George Tomlinson School because of themes linked to its Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender History Month
Ahmad claims that the parents had withdrawn the their kids:
Simply to secure a decent moral upbringing for their children … Rather than filling the heads of impressionable boys and girls with fatuous drivel about gay penguins, schools should be ashamed of the fact that they are sending children out into the world barely able to read, write and add up properly. Muslim children are leaving schools without learning their cultural roots and linguistic skills.
He adds:
The action is being taken against the parents as part of a policy of ‘promoting tolerance’. So why not tolerate parents, who, for sincerely-held reasons, consider their children too young to be taught about gay relationships? This isn’t education, its cultural fascism.
If the local council does decide to go through with a prosecution, it would be in line with the government’s approach to the Muslim community. Muslims who believe homosexuality is a sin would be labelled as extremists. Liberal totalitarianism is a growing phenomenon in Britain and the west in general but many people will be shocked that the school can override a parent’s view of what’s appropriate or inappropriate to teach their children.
Ahmad continues:
This latest episode should be a wakeup call for Muslim parents. Muslim parents MUST explain our moral standards to schools and be prepared to take steps to protect our children’s morals and values from a growing agenda to impose liberal values upon them. This is an eye-opening for those Muslim parents who keep on sending their children to state schools to be mis-educated and de-educated by non-Muslim monolingual teachers.
His answer to Muslim woes?
Educational apartheid.
State schools where Muslim children are in majority must be designated as Muslim community schools employing bilingual Muslim teachers to act as role models for pupils during their developmental periods.
Unfortunately both Brown and Cameron (insofar at the Tories have any policies at all) seem to be in favour of more 'faith schools', so we can expect Muslim apartheid to flourish. And the consequences aren't too hard to predict.
If this islamofacist doesn’t like the English education system and our egalitarian values, perhaps he should go to a muslim country rather than trying to change ours. And or course the muslim and other religious schools will be producing decent balanced students won’t they?
If you moslem fascist don't like it here, go to an Islamic Country and leave us alone!
I think he needs to review the definition of fascism. Nothing about teaching Gay and Lesbian tolerance is even remotely fascist by definition.
"barely able to read, write and add up properly"
Sounds like par for the course for most inhabitants of muslim countries. Makes you wonder why he doesn't bugger off back home, and complain about it there.
You when the imigration control of your country is not working is when Terrorists, idiots, bigots and bad people are allowed in whilst hard-working families and individuals with high education are rejected
Yep, he should consider the fact that there are good reasons why western countries are more pleasant places to live than Islamic theocracies.
the whole idea of "gay" lessons is really stupid though, it's a bit like giving lessons on "Why it is important to go to the Toilet"… what's the point?
And… religious schools should be banned.
Of course all those urging this guy to go back where he came from are aware that his views are shared by a huge number of christians and jews?
He's conservative, maybe even a bigot, but because he's a moslem that means he should leave the country? When the christian right bigged up March of the Penguins as supporting their 'family' (read patriarchal) agenda I would have happily described their approach as fatuous drivel. Probably did, it's the sort of thing I'd say. Describing the gay penguin book as fatuous drivel when it is used to drive another agenda is just as reasonable, however much I may agree with the agenda in principle.
He's arguing from a position which is widely held and championed by the likes of the Mail. I don't care for it, but I care less for the pretty obvious sub-text showing up here. Other than taking exactly the same line as countless indiginous christians, is there any other reason he should bugger off back home. (We've established that this isn't actually his home, have we?)
'Liberals this, liberals that'. And who does he think paved for the way for he and his family as muslims to have the same rights and opportunities as everybody else? Conservatives and the Christian Right? I expect he just uses that language to endear himself to the Daily Mail.
De-education sounds interesting. I can just picture a big,beardy bi-lingual basher waving a Koran in a threatening manner at all those liberally-minded mini-mos.
So why not tolerate parents, who, for sincerely-held reasons, consider their children too young to be taught about gay relationships?
They aren't beheading them, hanging them or gluing their anuses shut, which is what Muslims do to gay people. I'd say they're being incredibly tolerant.
Fancy living your life base on a load of superstitious nonsense.
They will never get to know Salvation in the afterlife as promised in the teachings of Jesus Christ who died (temporarily) for their Sins.
His poor children are going to end up a part of this Moon worshipping Cult just like him.
Everybody knows that the United Kingdom is a Christian nation where people live their lives by Christian standards.
Firstly I'd like to say that while I fully support tolerance and acceptance for people of all colours of consenting adult sexual orientation, I do feel that you cannot teach tolerance to those who do not wish to be taught. Therefore I believe it is counter productive to make such lessons mandatory as it just gives the willfully ignorant an excuse to bleat on about the 'liberal' agenda etc etc.
I think one point that does need to be raised is that contrary to the headlines of the Mail article quoted, none of the parents are actually being faced with prosecution for withdrawing their children from this one lesson. If you read on you will see it says…
"The council has declared that children who missed the lessons will be viewed as truants."
Alright so they will be marked as truants for those days, so where's all this court action talk come from then? Well read on and you see…
"The ruling means some families could breach rules that children should not be absent for more than 19 days a year. "
Ah 'some' families 'could' breach a rule about children being absent for more than 19 days, so in fact it's rather a flimsy construct saying they are facing court action for withdrawing their children from these lessons isn't it?
Final point I think parents do have the right to withdraw their children from lessons which they feel are counter to their beliefs. However there are ways to do this without making a song and dance or getting an article in the daily mail! Hint communication, consultation, compromise…
#Fancy living your life base on a load of superstitious nonsense. #
Quite!
Not sure if you're being satirical Talitha?
It's hard to tell with fundies.
Alan C;
She comes from the best church ever… It offered you(at the time) an xbox or a PS2 if you converted!
Praise Landover church!
We are keeping up with popular culture. It's now a PS3.
We are also the only Church that offers a guarantee of Salvation or your money back.
Don asks: "He's conservative, maybe even a bigot, but because he's a moslem that means he should leave the country?"
There are bigots amongst all creeds and ethnic groups, but if we're talking here about someone who chose to migrate from an illiberal muslim nation to a liberal Western nation, only to complain about how liberal the West is and seek to change our evil ways, inviting him to "bugger off back home" is a perfectly logical response.
Cameron and Blair are both faith school enthusiasts as is Gordon Brown. Charles Windsor is so crazy that he doesn't stop at faith schools but has moved on to every kind of dotty "alternative" he can conjure up – not for himself, of course. He gets the best medical treatment when he needs it. Elizabeth Windsor said in one Christmas Day bore- in (listened to later thanks to being alerted by Barry Duke) that only religion could solve the problems of the world and that atheists were tight gits.
What remains an unexplained mystery is why all these religious types, of all faiths, have been so ready to help themselves to thieving from the public purse via MPs expenses. Couldn't we address this. The only comment I have heard is that this is what happens when we abandon religious – Christian in this case – values. Things will look up when Murph gets into the Lords. So much for modesty, poverty and the poor inheriting the earth …………….
The Freethinker comments threads are of course, some of the most reasoned on the internet. One thing that hasn't been noted so far however is that the reason for the presence of the "gay penguin" book in primary schools is not just about "teching tolerance" (on the contrary, it is bigotry which must be taught to children, which is why all totalitarian belief systems need to access children at a young age). It is also about the self-esteem for young gay and lesbian people who often realise at a young age that they are different from some of their peers. The "gay penguins" book has come under attack by bigots of various stripes, ranging from the Christian extermists, Islamists, some tiny sects of orthodox Marxist-Leninism and the mealy-mouthed little Englanders of the Maily Dale. I suspect that what irks them is not just that this book promotes the emotional well-being of all children who do not confirm (for whom they care not one jot), but it also relates to the very real prevalence of animal homosexuality, and thus scientifically undermines the basis of religious intolerance.
"Rather than filling the heads of impressionable boys and girls with fatuous drivel…"
He's right of course. This would never happen in an islamic school or in any other faith school, church, synagogue, mosque, temple etc etc
Godless not gormless