MOST independent Muslim schools in England are under threat of closure, according to the Association of Muslim Schools (AMS).
The organisation, which represents independent Islamic institutions, said many could not afford to stay open.
Most of the dogma factories schools use fees and donations to cover costs and need about £2,000 per pupil per year to stay afloat.
But the recession has seen donations fall and parents unable to pay fees, according to this BBC report.
The threat applies to “almost all” of the 130 Muslim faith schools in England, the association says.
Among these, 119 are independent and reliant on fees and donations, but 11 are in the state sector so have guaranteed income and are not under threat.
An obvious way of saving the the remainder is to shift them into the state sector. As Voluntary Aided Schools they will receive all their running costs from the Government, but will have to follow the National Curriculum.
No, no, NO, says Dr Mohammed Mukadhum, the chairman of AMS. Many schools, he insists, do not want to become voluntary aided because then the government would have a more substantial influence in the way they were run [my italics].
He added:.
The possibility of closing down is a looming reality and the smaller schools are the ones that are most vulnerable.
The Iqra Girls’ School in Oxford is one of the private independent schools on the brink of closure.
Dr Hojjat Ramzy
Head teacher Dr Hojjat Ramzy said there was not enough funding to continue running it, and Oxford’s only Islamic school would have to close.
Most of the charitable donations we relied on have dried up and many parents have taken their kids out of the school because they can no longer afford the fees.
Some parents have sent their children to schools in Pakistan and Bangladesh instead. If the school closes, Dr Ramzy fears that more students will be sent abroad because parents do not want their children going to a state school.
He said:
It will be very sad because they won’t get the same quality of education and some may just end up getting married and not completing their studies at all.
Zainab Rahman, 11, is in year seven at the secondary school.
I love it here, I get to learn about my religion and I can talk openly about it. But if this school shuts down, I won’t have anywhere to go.
She said because there were no other Muslim faith schools in Oxford, she would be sent to Pakistan to study and would have to live with relatives there.
Her best friend was sent to Pakistan last month to be educated there, she said, because her parents could not afford the school fees.
She didn’t really have a choice and had to go abroad. I’ve lost touch with her since.
A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said:
We have made it far easier for an independent school to join the state sector – as long as it is supported by the local council and community.
But Dr Mukadhum said:
They want to remain independent and so they will have to try to survive by themselves. If they are unable to do so it will mean a great loss for all the parents, teachers and students involved.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
November 22nd, 2009 at 9:03 pm
Why doesn’t the creator of the universe just bung them a wad?
November 22nd, 2009 at 9:17 pm
Off topic I know but this morning I happened to watch a bit of “The big question” and the turd like imam Ajmal Masroor was a guest. The topic was “Do angels exist”.He sat there with his gelled hair trimmed little beard and pinstriped suit all very vain and actually said “People who talk to fairies should see a psychiatrist.” It was just like jesus and mo!
November 22nd, 2009 at 9:50 pm
chrsbol – I never miss the big question. It blindly veers crazily between horror and slapstick.
The idiocy of the show is like a glaring spotlight highlighting the preposterous nonsense of believers. Yet they are so lacking in self awareness, they don’t realise how hateful, petty, spiteful and bigoted they are – yet vainly claim moral high ground over the token normal people thay have on the show. Those greedy bastards today, wanting to deny the homeless – just so they could own as many houses as they could!
And as I’m a scouser – I’m appalled at seeing that asshole McKenzie on ANY broadcast media.
November 22nd, 2009 at 10:20 pm
chrsbol. Forgive me if I’m wrong; but didn’t the Moon-God send an angel to give an ambiguous message to a psychotic paedophile on a flying horse?
Methinks Imam Masroor should brush up on his Islam!
November 22nd, 2009 at 10:35 pm
@ Chrsbol & Remigius: “Belief in Islamic angels and jinns are the two most important ingredients of Islamic faith system. Verse 2:285 of the Qur’an says Muslims must believe in Allah, His angels, and His Books. Verse 2:3–4 commands the believers to believe in the unseen, meaning, perhaps, the jinns.” Satan (or Shataan) is said to be a jinn.
See http://www.islam-watch.org/Abu...../Part3.htm
So Imam Masroor certainly does need to brush up on his Islam!
November 22nd, 2009 at 10:37 pm
Erm… Why does an Islamic girls‘ school have a headmaster? Shome Mishtake, shurely?
November 22nd, 2009 at 10:40 pm
I dare say some more Arab oil money will flow into the UK to prop up these indoctrination centres. The fact that some muslim parents are packing their brats off to places like Pakistan for programming shows how they don’t want to integrate with the west.
November 22nd, 2009 at 10:43 pm
I think I should explain a bit further. He said angels do exist in islam but talking to them would define you as insane oh
wtf I don’t care one way or t’other!
November 22nd, 2009 at 10:48 pm
chrsbol. But didn’t Mad Mo…
Nevermind. I’ve answered my own question.
November 22nd, 2009 at 10:57 pm
The closing of religious schools is good news, regardless of the particular faith. This is very encouraging.
November 23rd, 2009 at 12:15 am
I can’t fathom the mind that considers sending your child off to another country to live with relatives is a better choice than sending them to a local school and privately educating them on whatever you feel the public schools miss.
How utterly bizarre.
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:16 am
Schooling / education implies that facts are taught… well I don’t need to spell it out. What makes my blood boil is that they may be state run, and that is wholly unaccepatable. I for one will be the first knocking at number ten if that happens.
November 23rd, 2009 at 9:42 am
If only this would happen to all ‘faith’-schools!
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:43 am
Tough, really tough, and my heart bleeds for them. On the other hand when I heard a representative of secular muslim women interviewed (yes they do exist) I managed to stifle my sobs. She said, “Women are regarded as half as much worth as men. A woman can be divorced if a man says so. And a man can beat a woman as much as he wishes.”
Seems this stuff, according to her, is based on ther Quoran. I think I may therefore just about get through my distress for them.
November 23rd, 2009 at 11:01 am
Angela-K took words out my keyboard. I fear the Wahabi nutters will only too gladly dish out money so that indoctrination in this country can be continued. If they don’t “Praise be to Allah for the recession”.
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:04 pm
H.Davids. Looks like one of the faith schools big and secret supporters (tax payers money, of course) -a great example for his faith – may be hitting the headlines soon. I refer to Tony “the Phony” Blair ex PM, who is now being revealed in documents already leaked in all his contemptible deceits which left us with an illegal war and soldiers without the weapons to defend themselves.
I have some sympathy Tony Blair in that you can scarcely meet your schemes for faith communities, faith schools and faith bullshit in general without something losing out.
November 23rd, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Many of the posters here have had various degrees of religious indoctrination in their childhood. The more intense the brain-washing the more difficult it is to shake off but it is often the case that those who do shake it off are more dedicated to the cause of freethought than those like myself who had only a moderately religious upbringing.
Is it too much to hope that kids that have been sent to islamic countries to be educated will be reminded of the reason their parents or grandparents moved to the west in the first place? Basically, Islamic countries are really crap places to live and it does not take a genius to put two and two together and work out that Islam is the reason.
November 23rd, 2009 at 8:27 pm
Any good establishment will not survive in the money-burning wave of economic crisis these months.
So these schools might suffered the same economic disease that undergone hundreds of major establishments and companies here and there.
Anyway , Why this fear of doctrine teachings ??
Are not all teach a doctrine in an explicit way and mostly in an implicit way.
They are living among us and know our way of thinking. So I think we should have no fear of these schools.
Fear comes from the dark side of the human imagination.
Some times our brain pictures shadows as ghosts !!!!
I know a lot of people from lots of doctrines , they are good people.
I also know my neighbor, A drunk nagging wife-hitting child-abuser?!
November 23rd, 2009 at 11:12 pm
@Mut-Al
“I also know my neighbor, A drunk nagging wife-hitting child-abuser?!”
So you actually live next-door to the Prophet Mohammad?
Wow!
November 23rd, 2009 at 11:22 pm
@Mut-Al
Bet you wish you also had a flying donkey in the garage eh!
November 24th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
2-remigius , my neighbor
I would like to thank you so much for your kind comment.
So you speculate and improvise Mr “remigius”
I hope your life is not built on speculation and dream.
A bit of advice : reconsider your way of “thinging” and thinking
I wish you the grand prize which is to win your dream car.
Bye
November 24th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
@ Mut-AL. “A drunk nagging wife-hitting child-abuser.”
So what are you going to do about it? For a start telephone the police. They have specialist officers for wife beaters and they certainly need them. Then you could phone your local Social Services Children’s Department and they will be round to check them out. If you mention the child abuse to the police they will contact Social Services.
You need not contact the NSPCC as they are a grotesque and expensive waste of time and despite what they imply have no legal powers to do anything.
November 24th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
Seconded, Broga. Assuming Mut-Al isn’t just making up a stereotyped Westerner as a strawman, of course.
March 6th, 2010 at 7:58 pm
Thank Allah.