News:
A few months ago, the UK government schools inspection body, Ofsted, carried out much publicised school inspections in Birmingham as part of the so called ‘Trojan horse’ affair. After much hysteria, the findings focussed not on the academic attainment of the children, but on the mainstream Islamic practices in these schools which have an overwhelming number of students from Muslim homes. Trips to Umrah, adhan (Muslim call to prayer), and separate sitting between boys and girls were brought forward as evidence that these schools were supposedly open to ‘extremism’ (whatever that means) and evidence of an unsubstantiated Islamist plot.
Comment:
Now, in the last few days, Ofsted has published reports after emergency inspection of six independent Muslim schools in the London borough of Tower Hamlets. Like the alleged Trojan horse claims, which resulted in numerous Birmingham schools that were previously graded outstanding and then put into special measures, these Muslim schools in Tower Hamlets face a similar fate. The latest inspection has scored the six schools inadequate, despite previous inspections praising some of them or even grading them as ‘outstanding’. One of Ofsted’s recurring charge against these schools is that they are “focused too heavily on Islamic teachings”. So what is at stake is the Islam of our children.
The UK government is using Ofsted as its weapon to carry out a witch-hunt in private Muslim schools or state schools in predominantly Muslim areas. It then uses vague terms such as “extremism” and “radicalisation” as a generic label against anything remotely Islamic hence Ofsted is able to find “evidence” against these schools. This pattern is set to be repeated across the UK making it clear that despite all the talk of the UK’s ‘tolerance’, mainstream Islamic practices and opinions will not be tolerated in schools. This is an attempt to force Muslim children to adopt Western secular liberal values in relation to sexuality, relationships between the genders, supporting British troops abroad and other matters. Someone even said a prayer room at their university is now under threat of closure because of accusations of ‘extremism’ – whatever that means.
The current witch-hunt of Muslim schools is part of Prime Minister Cameron’s ‘muscular liberal’ approach to enforce British values (an undefined term) on Muslim children.
Despite this pressure, Muslims must not shy away from standing up for their children’s right to hold onto Islamic values, beliefs and morals. This an Islamic duty about which Allahسبحانه وتعالى will question us. Parents need to engage with schools as a pressure group arguing the case for the things that promote the Islamic values and against the governments bullying to undermine them. Where are the government’s policies against the growing abuse of children, the ‘sexting’ (texting of explicit images) that is happening in some schools or the under-age sex and other matters affecting children? Islamic values are the antidote against such matters and Muslim parents must fight to ensure schools do not convert their children to such liberal values which are the cause of so many societal problems.
Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Taji Mustafa
Media Representative of Hizb ut Tahrir in Britain