The problem of Islamic groups and powerful Muslim individuals taking over schools by various means and turning them into extremist Islamic indoctrination centres is proving to be more widespread than we originally assumed. Despite creative whining and Taqiyya (dissembling for Islam) such as that practised by Salma Yaqoob of Birmingham, this problem is not showing signs of going away. Not only have the number of schools where allegations of Islamic takeover apparently increased, there are also rumours that this problem may not be confined to one British city.

The cases is also beginning to reveal just how deep has been the penetration by Islamists of the state agencies that are supposed to monitor schools. This penetration of Ofsted is alleged by the National Secular Society in an article on their website. It makes worrying reading.

There is one element of the National Secular Society’s article that I disagree with and that was their conflating of Fundamentalist Christians and Fundamentalist Muslims. There is a huge difference. Although I disagree with Christian fundamentalism I support the right of parents to send their children to a school where they learn the ‘Young Earth’ theory of evolution, rather than the standard theory, if that is what the parents choose. A person who has been to a Christian fundamentalist school may have gaps in their scientific knowledge which may influence their later choice of career, but unlike the product of an Islamic school is unlikely to believe that their god told them to explode themselves on a bus. It is false equality to compare Christian schools, even those at the stricter end of the scale, with those Islamic schools that are teaching gyno-hatred, sedition and religious supremacism.

Here’s part of the article from the National Secular Society website

“The National Secular Society has expressed concern that inspectors with extremist views are working for the body responsible for inspecting Muslims and Christian independent schools.

An investigation carried out by the Sun on Sunday found that the Bridge Schools Inspectorate, which inspects schools belonging to the Christian Schools’ Trust and the Association of Muslim Schools throughout England, contains a number of fundamentalist Christians and Muslim hardliners.

The newspaper claims that one of its inspectors, Ibrahim Hewitt, compares gay people with paedophiles, and in his book, What Does Islam Say?, claims “fornicators” should be given 100 lashes.

Mr Hewitt, who also runs the private Al-Aqsa primary in Leicester, is also chair of the charity Interpal, which the US claims is “a global terrorist entity”, but is allowed by the Charity Commission to operate legally in the UK.

Another BSI inspector, Tahir Alam, is a former leader of the fundamentalist group HIKAM, an organisation which has aspired to turn Britain into an Islamic state. He is an alleged ringleader of the “plot” to seize control of community schools and academies in Birmingham by forcing out unsympathetic governors and headteachers, with a view to ensuring schools are run on “Islamic principles”. Mr Alam has denied any plot exists.

One of the BSI’s trustees, Mohamed Mukadam, is quoted as saying that Muslims who abandon their faith should be put to death.

Another trustee, David Freeman, an ex-chair of the Christian Schools Trust, was behind the King’s School in Witney which used Accelerated Christian Education curriculum, noted for its emphasis on the most extreme form of young-Earth creationism and famed, until 2013, for teaching in science that the existence of the Loch Ness monster was evidence against evolution.

According to the BSI’s website, the inspection body “provides an opportunity for cooperation between faith groups to establish a specialist faith schools inspectorate which respects their distinctive ethos.” The BSI says its inspection teams are led by highly experienced retired inspectors “who understand the distinctive characteristics of faith based education.”

Not all fundamentalisms have the same social, cultural or political impact as each other. A person educated at a strict Haredi Jewish school, may believe the world is under 10,000 years old but is unlikely to want to leave this school wanting to do harm to others. This is plainly not the case with many of these Islamic schools. They are turning out, and will continue to turn out those who are primed for hatred and Jihad.

All religious fundamentalisms can be a problem, but the problems they cause are not always the same, some are relatively easy to deal with but some are not. A lack of scientific knowledge could be made up later on, or a person could be exposed to different points of view post-18, but these are minor problems when compared to the sort of women hating, Britain hating seditionaries that Islamic schools are going to turn out. What problem do you think would be the hardest to deal with? My view is that it is the second problem that is more dangerous and more in need of urgency in combating it.

Although I normally believe in one law for all, that should not mean that we should treat dangerous ideologies and religions the same as those ideologies and religions that behave peaceably, loyally and honestly.