The Trojan Horse scandal, where Muslims took over schools and practically ran them as Madrassas, and were characterised by extreme misogyny, blatant anti-Semitism and a strong hint of Islamic supremacism, gave the Government a bit of a fright. Here were groups who could quite fairly be described as fifth columnists running schools and teaching their pupils to hate all that is non-Muslim and also to hate other faiths and even the United Kingdom itself. ‘Something must be done’ about these Trojan Horse schools cried the commentariat and the educational establishment and it was a cry taken up by some of Britain’s newspapers. Unfortunately the ‘something’ that has been done may well make things worse than things were before. It will certainly make things worse for Atheist, Christian and Jewish children, who although they deserve a truthful education about the nature of Islam, are about to be served up more pro-Islam pap.
Dismay is the best way of describing what I first felt when I read an article in Britain’s Jewish Chronicle by Professor Geoffery Alderman, reproduced below, on proposals for all religious schools to teach one other religion, all in the cause of the ‘British values’ much spouted about by the Education Secretary Nicky Morgan.
As Professor Alderman’s latest article is not yet available on the Jewish Chronicle website and as many people may not be able to access a print copy, I have scanned in the article in question and will comment on it below the image.
From her on in I shall comment on Professor Alderman’s points in turn
Sadly we have come to expect wild enthusiasm for the failed multicultural project from the likes of Laura Janner-Klausner. She and her Rabbinical colleagues as well as some Rabbonim from the Liberal Judaism movement, which is even more far left than the Reform Rabbonim are, have a gruesome reputation for stupidity when it comes to dealing with the ideology of Islam. For example: Despite a considerable amount of criticism both from inside and outside Reform and Liberal Judaism, rabbonim from these movements still insist on keeping links with and contacts with the extremism linked East London Mosque. It doesn’t help that some LJ and Reform rabbonim are as I’ve said here before ‘a bit more Marx than Moses’, a stance which does nobody any favours.
The Orthodox Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis was initially correct to say that this is not something that can be dealt with as part of a GCSE exam. There are ways to build links with those of other faiths or inform yourself about other faiths that do not mean that the religion of the school concerned is pushed out. Unfortunately as Professor Alderman says, although Chief Rabbi Mirvis, as I and others are able to do, see problems with a blunt instrument approach to this problem, in the face of diktat from the Education Secretary caved in. l can see Chief Rabbi Mirvis’s point that teaching about Islam in Jewish schools is more useful than teaching about Christianity as in the UK the signs and symbols of Christianity are all around, even the English language is peppered with expressions that come straight from the pages of the King James Bible. I can well see why it was decided that as Christianity was so socially and culturally all pervasive then there was no need to teach Christianity specifically. So the decision was made that Jewish schools, if they have to teach a second religion, should teach about Islam, because it is less culturally common, and this is the point that serious problems start to crop up.
If a school, not just a Jewish school but any school, is teaching about a religion that is different from that of the school ethos itself, then it should do it dispassionately. If teaching dispassionately and accurately about a spiritual path is the aim,then the pupils deserve some honesty in the curriculum. It’s right for example that some Christans ‘successionist’ view of Christianity is examined and that Christian Testament passages such as that of ‘Peters Dream’ are shown for what they are which is a textual symbol of a great break from Christianity’s Jewish origins. That sort of honest enquiry and factual subject matter, is not what Nicky Morgan appears to have in mind.
What concerns Professor Alderman is the content of the Islam section and if he is correct in his assertions then it not only concerns me as well, but should concern all of us. Christian or Atheist parents may be thinking that their children are getting an honest appraisal of Islam in the new curriculum but it seems that what they are going to get is yet more dishonest ‘religion of peace’ guff.
According to Professor Alderman and his sources although the main movements of Islam are covered, there seems to be no mention of the more unsavoury aspects of Islam and no mention of Wahabbism or the terror which such fundamentalism feeds. Just as it’s difficult to honestly discuss the character of Jesus of Nazereth without acknowledging that he was a Jew living in Jewish culture and following Jewish law, it is also difficult if not impossible to do the same regarding Islam without mentioning Wahabbism or Jihad or the expansion of Islam at sword point following the death of Mohammed.
Our children, whether they be Atheist, Christian, Jewish, Hindu or Sikh deserve much better than this dishonest abortion of a curriculum. Yet again our children are going to be force fed a sanitised, polished and exceedingly dishonest version of Islam, its history and its theology.
If children are going to be taught about any religion then it should be taught, warts and all and pupils should not be fobbed off with lies and falsehoods about any religion especially when the religion in question is Islam, an ideology that is noticeable by its extreme lack of peace.
I do hope that those who are teaching this course whether they are in a secular state school or in a religious school do indeed manage to get supplementary information to make this sows ear of a curriculum into much more of the ‘silk purse’ that it both could have been and should have been. Unfortunately as much as I hope that teachers will flesh out this troubling GCSE course with additional information, it may be difficult for those honest teachers to fight their way through the politically correct culture of the teaching profession, and introduce additional information that will correct the faults in the curriculum.
What the case of the ‘Islamopandering’ GCSE and Professor Alderman’s article should do is to inspire all parents of all religions and none to take much more of a critical interest in what their children are being fed in schools. For far too long parents have ‘left education to the schools’ and by doing this have left their children wide open to all sorts of Left wing indoctrination, some of it relatively benign, but others, such as telling children that Islam is a religion of peace, highly dangerous and dishonest. To teach about Islam without mention of jihad or Islamic anti-Semitism is teaching our children a blatant falsehood, and it is down to parents to point out to schools that they the parents know that what is being taught about Islam is false and that they refuse to allow their children to be given such disgusting and biased pro-Islam propaganda. From Professor Alderman’s description of the new course it looks like it could have been put together by Left wing educationalists achingly eager to not give offence or worse, by closet Islamists embedded in the Education Department and those who supply services to them.
I wouldn’t let my child do this course if I was able to prevent it, because I want my child to be taught things that are true and not a pack of pro-Islam lies.
