"We will all suffer if schools become a breeding ground for religious intolerance and radicalism, where contempt for Western values is rife and where the education provided for pupils is poor."
Michael Gove,
British Education Secretary
Two years ago, the government of Great Britain approved the concept of "free schools", publicly funded schools based on principles and standards approved by local communities. A year later, the al-Madinah School in Derby, Britain's first Muslim free school, was forced to shut down by government inspectors. Why? Creeping Islamic fundamentalism. The non-Muslim head and deputy head (principal and vice principal) had been bullied out of their jobs, non-Muslim female staff were required to wear hijabs, male and female students were segregated, Western music was banned and there was so much religious teaching that there was no time to cover the national curriculum properly.
Since this was an isolated event, the al-Madinah School closure was only a mild embarrassment for the government. In recent months, however, school inspectors uncovered a much bigger problem: the takeover of state-funded secular schools by Islamic hardliners. Cities with large Muslim populations like Manchester and Birmingham were targeted for investigation. Allegations generally follow the al-Madinah model: school boards infiltrated by radicals, head teachers replaced by Muslims, gender segregation, non-Muslim festivals such as Christmas scaled back, squeezing out non-Muslim staff, imposing Islamic practices and so on.
An interesting feature of these reports is the fact that the whistleblowers who alerted government authorities included many Muslim parents and Muslim community leaders who want no part of this apparent "radicalization". School inspectors are being sent into schools suspected of pursuing a fundamentalist agenda (15 alone in Birmingham). Reports are expected within a few months. Stay tuned for Part Two.
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