Give them an inch…

23 February 2007

I’ve only just found out about this. On Wednesday, the Muslim Council of Britain, a group of self-appointed muslim busybodies, has put together a paper entitled Towards Greater Understanding – Meeting the Needs of Muslim Pupils in State Schools (PDF).

The MCB says that the objective of this document is to give information and guidance on how schools can respond positively to some commonly raised issues concerning Muslim pupils including halal food, dress code, Ramadan, provision for prayers, collective worship etc.

In other words, this means how the mostly-secular UK education system can bend over and take islam up the arse, and we should do it in the name of diversity.

One of the claims in this document is:

Many crucial systems such as algebra, Arabic numerals and the concept
of zero (vital to the advancement of mathematics) were transmitted to medieval Europe through Muslim scholars. Further, sophisticated instruments like the astrolabe and the quadrant as well as good navigational maps crucial to the European voyages of discovery were developed by the Muslims.

This is a complete red herring: aside from the fact that the number system that they transmitted were hindu in origin (which these muslims neglect to mention), Diophantus (c200 – c284 BCE) is the father of algebra, rather than simply naming it as al-Khwarizmi did. Hipparchus (c180 BCE – ?) is credited with refined the projection theory that it’s based on, Ctesibius allegedly had a “clock” that may have been an astrolabe, Claudius Ptolemy (c150 CE) may also have had an instrument that could have been an astrolabe. Islamic science based most of its work on translations of Greek sources from hundreds of years previously. (Sources 1,2)

Developed and transmitted, yes, but clearly based on the work of others from well before the time of Mohammed. Of course, none of this has anything whatsoever to do with muslims or the koran.

The majority of this document, though, points out a number of things that schools can do to accommodate muslim children (sic). Not all of these are beyond the bounds of reason, but there are a number that are at least somewhat very inconvenient:

School respects the decision of Muslim boys to grow a beard.

All kitchen staff receive guidance and training in the handling, preparation and serving of halal food.

School builds or adapts a washing facility in the toilet areas where pupils can conveniently make ablution which includes washing of the feet.

School recognises and celebrates the spirit and values of Ramadan through collective worship or assembly themes and communal Iftar (collective breaking of the fast).

School takes account of Ramadan when planning internal examinations and tries to avoid scheduling them during the month of Ramadan.

School avoids scheduling sex and relationship education and swimming during Ramadan.

The school celebrates Eid by sharing sweets amongst their children to mark the event. In addition, the school may make the normal school meal a special Eid meal for their pupils.

School ensures contact-sports activities are conducted in single gender groups.

With respect to religious education (RE), the MCB’s document states:

When drawing up the RE poilcy the school takes account of the religious background of its pupil population when allocating syllabus time in the teaching of religious education.

The school ensures that adequate religious education resources are available, including materials about Islam, and that these are accurate and authentic.

At Key Stage 4, all Muslim pupils are given the opportunity to study the Islam options (Islamic Studies) as part of GCSE Religious Studies.

The school respects and honours the rights of parents to withdraw their children from RE lessons if requested in writing.

My emphasis.

Do you see what they’ve done here? On the one hand, they expect all schools to carry accurate and authentic information about islam to teach in the RE classroom, but they’re also expecting a get-out-of-school-free card.

Imagine this scenario:

A school has acquiesced to the demands of the MCB, and ensures that there’s islamic materials in RE class. When, in the RE class, it’s time to learn about islam, all pupils have to sit down and learn about it as expected. However, when it comes time to learning about christianity or judaism, the muslim children are allowed to not have to participate.

Basically this amounts to everyone having to learn about islam, but the muslims not having to learn about anyone else. Hypocrisy, pure and simple.

The same thing goes for collective worship (yes, we still have it in the UK). The document details what the school should do if the school is significantly or mostly attended by children of muslims:

Schools with a significant number of Muslim pupils apply for part-determination and offer daily Islamic collective worship for their Muslim pupilsâ€™ spiritual and moral development. In coherence with the values and ethos of the school.

Schools with very high Muslim pupil populations have a whole school determination and offer daily Islamic collective worship for their Muslim pupilsâ€™ spiritual and moral development.

and the get-out clause:

Schools respect and honour the right of parents to withdraw their children from collective worship if requested in writing.

The rest of the document is like this. If muslims don’t like something they can’t change, they want a get out clause (there’s even one for music or drama lessons that may raise religious or moral concerns for Muslim pupils and parents.). On the other hand, schools are expected to accommodate muslims to an extraordinary degree, know about islam, cater for islamic tastes and accede to the demands of muslim parents.

And all of this because they believe in a different sky-pixie to that which is traditionally believed in in the UK.

No other posts are likely to be like this.

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1073 ResponsesGive+them+an+inch...2007-02-23+20%3A28%3A44nullifidian to “Give them an inch…”

potentilla on February 23rd, 2007 9:34 pm

I don’t see why you assume that thye do not intend the right of parents to withdraw children from RE and collective worship to apply to atheist parents or indeed Christian parents as well.

There certainly isn’t anything in what you quote that supports that assumption.

I found your blog the other day and, being an atheist and a rationalist, was interested in a number of your posts. Can’t say I’m much impressed with this one, though.
nullifidian on February 23rd, 2007 10:13 pm

potentilla,

of course, you’re correct, the option to opt out of RE lessons applies to all. However, my point is thus: they proscribe two distinct and opposing positions, in that:
a) all others should learn about us, from accurate and authentic source materials, whatever that might mean; and
b) we shouldn’t have to learn about them if we don’t want to.

Conceivably, the could arise a situation where an activist muslim parent community could demand that a school teach about islam, while at the same time removing their children from the general RE class and giving them separate islamic instruction, thereby resulting in a scenario where everybody else knows about islam, but the muslims know next to nothing about anyone else’s beliefs (or lack thereof).

Of course, it could also be conceivable that other, non-muslim, parents exclude their children from RE classes. However, I would opine that most of these parents, unless they are strictly religious themselves, are unlikely to object to their children learning about the various faiths.

It’s the “one rule for me, one rule for you” idea that I find offensive, not the notion of islamic attitudes being catered for, even though I find some of them quite bizarre.
potentilla on February 24th, 2007 4:01 pm

Yes, I understand what you find offensive, and I would agree with you if it was clear that that was the intention behind the suggested rule.

But it’s NOT clear. It seems to me quite likely, in fact, that the “withdrawal” suggestions were meant just as much to cater for non-Muslim parents wishing to isolate their children from Muslim input as vice versa, as a PR exercise (ie “we want more Muslim stuff in schools but we realise that some people won’t, so we will propose a way for those people to be catered for”.) After all, Islam is not particularly concerned with proselytising.

You were not, apparently, adhering to the philosophical principle of charity in your assumption that the proposals were intended by the MCB to apply only or mainly to Muslim parents. Of course, you may have other evidence about their intentions that you have not blogged.