Thursday, 12 June 2014

Tolerance Has Its Limits: Part Three - The Trojan Horse


On May 2, I profiled government investigations into "creeping Islamic fundamentalism" in British schools.  The first of these reports, recently leaked to the media, showed a disturbing trend in many schools in central England.  Most of the early information came from whistleblowers - Muslim and non-Muslim parents and teachers - opposed to the hardliners.  The official government response is twofold  1)  Michael Gove, the education secretary, said "Our children were exposed to things they shouldn't have been exposed to.  In future, all England's 20,000 elementary and high schools will have to promote British values by encouraging pupils to respect democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs."  2)  The governing bodies of 5 schools at the centre of the "Trojan Horse"  plot in Birmingham have been axed, another 12 schools were ordered to make 'improvements".  More measures are expected to be taken against other schools in central England, including the expulsion of teachers who allowed extremists into their classrooms.

Some specific observations from school inspectors included:
-  banning mixed gender swimming lessons
-  dropping music lessons because they were considered un-Islamic
-  some non-Muslim staff and head teachers felt 'intimidated",  "undermined"  or "bullied" by school
    governors into making changes they did not support eg.  segregating boys and girls in regular
    classrooms, cancelling Christmas events etc.
-  one school spent 32, 000 pounds of taxpayer money on 3 school trips to Mecca, Saudi Arabia;
   non-Muslim students could not participate
-  members of governing bodies had promoted a "narrow faith-based ideology" at some schools

A preliminary statement from the Muslim Council of Britain said it was concerned that the government inspectors were conflating (mixing) religious belief and extremism:  "Extremism will not be confronted if Muslims and their religious practices are considered as, at best, contrary to the values of this country and at worst, seen as the 'swamp' that fuels extremism".

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that a battle of values is shaping up in the U.K.  Many people like myself who support human rights (gender equality, equal employment opportunities etc.) and the fundamental freedoms (religion, free speech etc.)  are confused.  For example, does the right of a religion to practice gender segregation trump the human right of gender equality in education, employment opportunities etc.?

On July 7, 2005, I was on a Central Line train heading to work in Oxford St., London.  Emerging from Bond St. station, I sensed something was wrong - there was a certain stillness in the air.  When I arrived at my college, the first reports of bombings on the Circle Line were coming in over the radio.  Half an hour later, some of my students arrived - blackened, dirty from walking through the tube tunnel.  For a few hours, students and teachers listened, waited;  sirens wailed outside;  parents phoned and emailed from overseas as reports of terrorist bombings trickled out to the world;  then we escorted some of the more frightened students to their dorms.  I left the school at 6 p.m.  It was eerie.  This was Oxford St.  - no traffic, no noise, just people walking, thinking - what will happen tomorrow?

Over the next few days, what really surprised me were the media reports on the reaction of the Muslim community.  Of course, they did not support the terror tactics, nor the deaths of 52 people, nor the 700 casualties - but there was a sizable amount of sympathy for their objectives.

Fast forward to 2014.  The last word goes to Camilla Cavendish, a journalist with the Sunday Times:

"The reports (from the school inspectors)  should leave no one in any doubt of the severity of the threat.  Highly organized groups are exploiting our freedoms to create cultures that are totally antithetical to those freedoms.  The government must understand...... that the way to turn people away from extremism is to be as ruthless and as confident in your beliefs as the extremists themselves".

Stay tuned for Part 4

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