Quote of the day
“The Holy Prophet stated the person who plays chess is like one who dips his hands in the blood of a swine (pig).”
- a message on a website linked to from a Muslim primary school recently. A report by the think-tank Civitas found Islamic fundamentalism was being promoted on websites at some Muslim schools. One site linked to a primary school, quoted above, said playing Monopoly or chess was forbidden, the Madani Secondary Girls’ School in East London said on its website “Our children are exposed to a culture that is in opposition with almost everything Islam stands for”, while a third school’s website had electronic links to alleged extremist sites. Others had links to sites or chatrooms that contain fundamentalist views such as forbidding the playing of cricket or even reading of Harry Potter books.
Witanagemot Blogs
If they feel this way,why are they living here!!!!
Fit in or get out.
I tend to agree. If they feel they need to live by a strict Islamic code and that living in the West is so detrimental to their children’s upbringing, then they should live somewhere else. I would move if I felt my children’s morals and ethics were corrupted by their environment.
Yes, there are plenty of ‘muslim lands’ in the Middle East where they can observe as restrictive a variant of their religion as they like. Afghanistan, Saudi or Iran spring to mind. But oh wait! They wouldn’t have any of the freedoms they enjoy here, such as freedom from arbitrary torture and arrest, fair trials or (and this is the key) the ability to earn money and live in comfort.
I have no time for immigrants who want to turn their new country into a replica of the one they had to run away from.
Shaun,you forgot claiming benefits.
Wasn’t chess invented in Iran, or Persia as it then was? I wonder what the Ayatollahs have to say about it.
I believe that neither Chess nor Monopoly have yet been made compulsory for UK citizens, although it may be only a matter of time in the current climate. For the time being, though, I have no problem with them eschewing either game.
The issue is the potential for them taking action against those who refuse to refrain from such corrupting influences. On that score, I do agree that they have a choice between fitting in or going home.
The day when Monopoly becomes illegal will be a sad day for Britain.
Notice that Labour just ducked this issue by the DCSF saying that we don’t tolerate this sort of behaviour, which is pathetic. Geert Wilders gets banned from the UK for supposedly being extremist, yet the extremists within this country get a free ride. Double standards of the highest order.
It is easy to say” Go back to where you came from”,but do not forget that British Muslims are actually born and educated here. They are in the unenviable position of trying to combine two diffent worlds. That is no easy.
Multiculturalism is not about separation, ghettoisation or balkanisation. It is, instead, a recognition of both diversity and the need for common ground, mutual respect,and cultural engagement.
Muslims all over the world never opposed English as a language what they did was opposition of the Western culture and their system of education. In Pakistan, the medium of instruction is Urdu and English and the official language is both English and Urdu. Pakistan is going to send English teachers to Korea for the teaching of English language.
Muslim parents would like their children to be well versed in standard English to follow the National Curriculum and go for higher studies and research to serve humanity.
Majority of Muslim children leave schools with low grades because state schools with monolingual teachers are not capable of teaching English to bilingual children.At the same time, they need to learn and be well versed in Arabic, Urdu and other community languages to keep in touch with their cultural roots and enjoy the beauty of their literature and poetry. Bilinguaaism is an asset but British schooling percieves it as a problem.
I am concerned with the education of the Muslim children. It is nothing to do with integration or segregation. Those state as well as Church schools where Muslim children are in majority, in my opinion, may be designated as Muslim community schools with bilingual Muslim teachers as role models.
Bilingual Muslim children need state funded Muslim schools with bilingual Muslim teachers as role models during their developmental periods. There is no place for a non-Muslim child or a teacher in a Muslim school. Muslim schools do not encourage children to despise British society. They do not threaten social cohesion and no way fueling “ghettoisation and segregation”. According to a recent report, Danish and British parents threatened to move their children to other schools because there were too many Muslim children. People are nervous about their children’s upbringing.They feel that Muslims belong to different culture. British schooling is the home of institutional racism and this is the main reason why Muslim community and other communities need state funded schools for their children.
Multiculturalism is not about separation, ghettoisation or balkanisation. It is, instead, a recognition of both diversity and the need for common ground, mutual respect,and cultural engagement.
Fair enough but how does religious segregation help this? How can you have common ground with kids who you feel “is like one who dips his hands in the blood of a swine (pig)” because they played chess?
Muslim parents would like their children to be well versed in standard English to follow the National Curriculum and go for higher studies and research to serve humanity.
All humanity or just the bits not steeped in swine blood?
Majority of Muslim children leave schools with low grades because state schools with monolingual teachers are not capable of teaching English to bilingual children.At the same time, they need to learn and be well versed in Arabic, Urdu and other community languages to keep in touch with their cultural roots and enjoy the beauty of their literature and poetry. Bilinguaaism is an asset but British schooling percieves it as a problem.
Where to start with this? If the kids are bilingual then they can surely be taught in English. The country they will have to operate and live within works in English and I’ve known a great many bilingual kids (Chinese, Japanese, Indians, Italians, Pakistanis) who speak their parent’s language at home and performed excellently at school, in English.
I am concerned with the education of the Muslim children. It is nothing to do with integration or segregation.
Then why do Muslim kids need different treatment? And as for not being anything to do with segregation, in your very next paragraphy you go on to argue:
There is no place for a non-Muslim child or a teacher in a Muslim school.
Which sounds very much like apartheid to me.
According to a recent report, Danish and British parents threatened to move their children to other schools because there were too many Muslim children. People are nervous about their children’s upbringing.They feel that Muslims belong to different culture.
Are you suprised when you say non-Muslims have no place in Muslims schools? You cry about discrimination while insisting on your right to discriminate.
British schooling is the home of institutional racism and this is the main reason why Muslim community and other communities need state funded schools for their children.
Then why do Chinese and other SE Asian kids do so well? Why do the kids of Irish immigrants such as me do well? Additionally ‘Muslim’ is a religion, not a race. And it is you that argue for a religiously pure environment for Muslim schools so, actually, who’s the bigot?
It is easy to say” Go back to where you came from”,but do not forget that British Muslims are actually born and educated here.
Yes, sometimes it will be literally “going home”. Other times it will be termed “emigration”. Whatever.
If the UK is, in someone’s opinion, so terribly wrong, and there is no democratic way of changing it to suit them, they can and should leave. This advice is entirely independent of the ethnic group of the person concerned.
Thanks to Shaun for doing most of the work. I feel a letter coming on for tomorrow….
lftikhar
There is no place for a non-Muslim child or a teacher in a Muslim school.
With this statement you have destroyed your entire argument. How would you like it if we said there was no place for a Muslim child or teacher in a non-Muslim school?
Some people might even want to replace the word “school” with “state”, and we’re back at the “Muslims go home” argument again.
Many muslims are born here but are still not integrated.Being born here gives you only a label,it does make you you british in outlook or actions.Muslims don’t feel british,they feel muslim and thats the problem.Britain is predominantely a christian country but we are not ruled by christianity.We think of ourselves as british first and only then maybe what religion we are.With muslims its religion first so they will never fit in.
If we went to war with a muslim country,who would the muslims side with.A lot of british muslims are working against us as a 5th column already,we can not trust them.In iraq and afghanistan we are fighting with muslims for peace against tyranny,You never hear any of our british bred muslims supporting us and democracy.Myself i think we should get out and leave them to sort it out.
Muslims and other religions have lived for hundreds of year side by side in peace,why are muslims suddenly getting militant.
Two problems dmc:
1) What is ‘British’? The distracting attempts to define that have been farcical – remember Brown and ‘Britain Day’?
2) You say:
Muslims and other religions have lived for hundreds of year side by side in peace,why are muslims suddenly getting militant.
To which I say: Where? When?
I admit since labour have been running the country it has become less so,up till 2000 I would have recognised this country as british.Multiculturalism has been the culprit but if the country was threatened it would resurface again.There is a lot of patriotism in us still.More so in the so called working class.
The jews that lived in morroco were 10% of the population,turkey too had a fair amount.China and thailand have a large muslim population and india was mixed till forcibly partitioned.Still is to an extent.Lots more countries in sub saharan africa too,there was never this level of animosity,but now its all militancy and confrontation.
The jews that lived in morroco were 10% of the population,turkey too had a fair amount.China and thailand have a large muslim population and india was mixed till forcibly partitioned.Still is to an extent.Lots more countries in sub saharan africa too,there was never this level of animosity,but now its all militancy and confrontation.
That is to ignore the borader story of the Crusades, Muslim conquest of Spain, their incursions into Eastern Europe to spread their creed at sword point, Catholic-driven anti-semitism leading to the Holocaust, Inquisititorial drives against Heresy and more recently the Han Chinese actions to supress the increasingly militant Uighur muslims in their north western provinces. So I ask again – where and when, have the world’s major religions got along? And specifically, where does Islam get along with any other faith?
They hold Bhuddists to be apostate (hence the Taliban destroy statues in afghanistan), deride Christians and Jews as ‘crusaders’, believe that both are only fit to be 2nd class citizens in their Ummah while feeling that Jews all need killing. So they don’t get along. Just in case this is all looking a bit Euro-centric, remember that the Muslims also mock Hindus as ‘cow-worshippers’ and are implacable enemies of India…
Well I,m an athiest so to me one religion is as bad as another,also eurosceptic so there’s no hope for me.
The crusades were hundreds of years ago,half the trouble is we keep stirring up the past.This generation can’t be held guilty for things that far back.We can remember and heed lessons from them though.
I think the holocaust was more political and racial than religious.It was used to rouse the population,give them a handy enemy within,a scapegoat.
The world did have a much more peaceful period,even after the war.The muslims lived beside hindu’s for centuries.Yes you may have had a bit of agro but nothing like the scale now.
The han chinese seem to be disliked by all their minority peoples but you never hear of any trouble from chinese immigrants,at least not in europe or america.Is it because they are not overtly religious.
I agree,its islam versus the world now.Where and when did this fresh crop of militancy originate.
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