U.K. to teach students ‘British values’ after ‘Trojan horse’ scandal reveals Islamists taking over schools

2014/06/13 1 Comment

More on the Birmingham schools issue and debates in the UK:

Inspectors said members of governing boards had promoted a “narrow faith-based ideology” at some schools, whose students were overwhelmingly from Muslim backgrounds. One school attempted to ban mixed-sex swimming lessons; at another, music lessons were dropped because they were considered un-Islamic, and at a third, board members vetted the script for a nativity play and told staff they could not use a doll to represent the baby Jesus.

“Staff and some head teachers variously described feeling ‘intimidated,’ ‘undermined’ or ‘bullied’ by governors, and sometimes by senior staff, into making changes they did not support,” Mr. Wilshaw said.

Park View Educational Trust, which runs three of the criticized schools, rejected the inspectors’ verdict and said it would launch a legal challenge. Vice chairman David Hughes said the inspectors “came to our schools looking for extremism” but had not found any.

The Muslim Council of Britain said it was concerned that the inspectors were conflating religious belief and extremism.

It said in a statement that “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 feeds extremism.”

U.K. to teach students ‘British values’ after ‘Trojan horse’ scandal reveals Islamists taking over schools

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UK: Michael Gove (Education Sec’y) accused of using ‘Trojan Horse’ row to push anti-Islam agenda

2014/06/09 2 Comments

For those interested in UK debates, there has been a fair amount of coverage and concern about some schools and the increased influence of more traditional forms of Islam (e.g., ‘Wear hijabs in and out of class’: Pupils at state Islam school become the first to be forced to cover up with Muslim headscarf). In Canada, comparable concerns were expressed in the Thornhill School where Friday prayer segregated boys and girls, with girls menstruating being excused from prayer given they were “unclean” and expected to sit in the back row (Opposing prayer in Toronto public schools, with dignity):

One source said that part of the dispute between Ms May and Mr Gove was personal – in part fuelled by leadership ambitions. “They are trying to outwit each other and have had some real spats in the past within Cabinet, where Michael has just ripped into Theresa and has tried to set her up to look stupid.”

There was also a warning that the dispute was undoing some of the good that came out of the united response to the murder in Woolwich of Lee Rigby. An ally of Ms May said: “Woolwich was considered to be a high-water mark in terms of community involvement.

“A lot of people were very optimistic. The Prime Minister’s response was very positive until tragically the point where Michael got involved. Since then things have gone the pan. Twelve months ago was the high point but now we have a whole community that feels completely marginalised by what’s going on.

”The Home Office and Department of Education put out a statement saying: “There is no difference between the Education Secretary and the Home Secretary, who are both working energetically together to tackle the challenge posed by any form of extremism.”

Michael Gove accused of using ‘Trojan Horse’ row to push anti-Islam agenda – UK Politics – UK – The Independent.

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Écoles juives: les hassidim sont prêts à négocier | Le Devoir

2014/06/03 Leave a comment

A reminder of the challenges of fundamentalism and the limits of faith-based education:

Selon lui [Alex Werzberger, le porte-parole de la Coalition d’organisations hassidiques d’Outremont (COHO)], certaines matières obligatoires au programme ne seront jamais enseignées dans les écoles juives, « point final » affirme-t-il, très catégorique. Exit le cours Éthique et culture religieuse ainsi que les cours de biologie et de sciences. « On ne veut pas enseigner la théorie de l’évolution. À un enfant à qui on a dit toute sa vie que c’est Dieu qui avait créé la Terre, on ne va pas soudainement lui dire le contraire. »

Sur d’autres sujets, comme veiller à ce que tous les enseignants embauchés aient des brevets, il admet qu’ils devront « mettre de l’eau dans [leur] vin ». « Ça doit se faire des deux côtés, réitère-t-il. Dans une négociation, il faut qu’il y ait du give and take. On a l’impression que le gouvernement fait juste take, take, take. »

Écoles juives: les hassidim sont prêts à négocier | Le Devoir.

The reminds me of this article by Patrick Martin in The Globe of some of the medium and long-term challenges facing Israel and the growth of Jewish fundamentalists:

First of all, there has been a sharp decline in the length of formal studies taken by Haredi men. More than 47 per cent of Haredi men aged 35-54 (prime working age) have no more than a primary school education. Ten years ago only 31 per cent were limited to a primary education.

The reason for the substantial decline in formal education has been a steady transition to religious studies, the Taub report states, at the expense of secondary school and academic studies. And the trend will only grow.

More than 90 per cent of Haredi men aged 25-34 chose to take religious rather than academic studies. Fifty years ago, only about half of Haredi men forsook academic for religious studies.

All this has had a dramatic economic impact. “Israel’s poverty and income inequality rates are among the highest in the developed world – and considerably higher than they were in Israel several decades ago,” the Taub report concludes.

Why illiteracy may be the greatest threat to Israel’s survival

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How Buddhist fundamentalism became an international threat

2014/06/03 Leave a comment

Interesting piece by Doug Saunders on the rise of Buddhist fundamentalism:

This simultaneous explosion of fundamentalism in three Buddhist nations does not appear to be coincidental: Extremist monks from Myanmar formerly known as Burma, Sri Lanka and Thailand have held meetings in recent months to share ideas and form a movement. Mr. Arora notes “a common thread among the three groups: a portrayal of a threat to the majority religion, and linking of Buddhism to the national identity.”

This politicization of Buddhism – and the violence that sometimes accompanies it – appears to contradict traditional Buddhist principles and teachings, which are strenuously apolitical and non-violent. But the same could be said for the rise of Christian fundamentalism in the nineteenth century and the Muslim and Hindu-fundamentalist movements it inspired: religions that are theoretically devoted to peace have, one after another, inspired sometimes violent political movements in the name of their faith.

How Buddhist fundamentalism became an international threat – The Globe and Mail.

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Hatred of women, not Islam, fuels Pakistan’s honour killings

2014/05/31 Leave a comment

Two takes on the horrific stoning in Pakistan of  Farzana Parveen, another example of all too frequent “honour killings,” or as CCMW names them, “femicide.” Starting with Omar Aziz in the Globe:

What are we afraid of? Can we, for one second, acknowledge that there is a cultural problem here, or will we continue to sanctimoniously blame all of this on ‘those other men over there?’ Within five kilometers of my home, I can think of at least two cases of such extreme, impenitent misogyny. In one case, a Pakistani father beat his daughter after he discovered her long-distance relationship. In another, the case of Aqsa Parvez, her brother strangled her to death with the father’s consent because she objected to wearing the hijab. Everywhere there is an honour killing – a human sacrifice – there is a woman breaking off the chains of tradition. There is a woman demanding the right to live as she wishes, and in her way is a man demanding she get in line.

These women are the real freedom fighters in the Pakistani and wider South Asian and Middle Eastern community, not the cowardly males who use their physical advantage to assault women in the name of some illusory honour, or their supporters in the West and throughout South Asia who rationalize their decisions. One crime too many has been committed against women by the insecure, ignorant, hate-filled mob that is their own family. It is time that we be honest about the causes of such barbarity and begin seriously combatting it, or Farzana Parveen’s name may soon be forgotten like the many women who were sacrificed before her.

Hatred of women, not Islam, fuels Pakistan’s honour killings – The Globe and Mail.

And, via Farzana Hassan, this piece by Matthew Syed in The National Secular Society:

Turn your mind away from the brutality of honour killings and focus, for a moment, on the psychology. Consider the corrupting power of a religious ideology that can animate a father to perpetrate the most intimate and barbaric of assaults on his own daughter, a brother on his own sister, an uncle on his own niece.

“I killed my daughter as she had insulted all of our family by marrying a man without our consent, and I have no regret over it,” the police investigator quoted the father of the murdered woman in Lahore as saying. Her crime, in case you were wondering, was to fall in love with the wrong man.

You cannot win against this kind of barbarism by being nice. You can’t win by beating a strategic retreat, as Sotheby’s plans to do by withdrawing nudes from arts sales because they are terrified of offending Middle Eastern clients. Fundamentalism is too fierce, too implacable, it takes too deep a hold on those who are infected by it, to reach any kind of compromise. Trying to find an accommodation with fanaticism is like trying to cuddle a virus.

A woman is stoned. We politely look away

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Younger Canadians hold more negative views about religious groups – CRRF

2014/05/30 Leave a comment

Further to an earlier release of the CRRF and ACS Survey on Religion, Racism and Intergroup Relations in Canada Shows Differences in Attitudes Among Anglophones, Francophones and Other Groups, a further release pertaining to attitudes to religious diversity by age group. Remarkably consistent across religions, except for Muslims:

Table 1: Negative attitudes towards certain groups, according to age groups
 Negative Opinion

Total

18-24

25-34

35-44

45-54

55-64
 Muslims 44% 43% 45% 40% 43% 40%
 Jews 19% 24% 25% 20% 15% 15%
 Protestants 15% 24% 23% 14% 15% 8%
 Catholics 19% 25% 25% 22% 18% 13%
 Atheists/Agnostics 21% 14% 18% 21% 21% 22%
 Religious 31% 36% 33% 31% 31% 27%
 Immigrants 24% 24% 27% 24% 30% 16%
 Aboriginals 26% 26% 26% 25% 29% 22%

Younger Canadians hold more negative views about religious groups

Whereas on diversity in general, young people are more supportive than older age groups, as another relatively recent study by ACS shows:

Do you have a very positive, somewhat positive, somewhat negative or very negative opinion of Canadian Multicultural Policy
Total 18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65 + French English Other
TOTAL positive 58% 74% 61% 61% 56% 54% 47% 48% 60% 67%
Very positive 15% 34% 18% 15% 10% 12% 8% 8% 14% 26%
Somewhat positive 43% 40% 43% 46% 46% 42% 39% 40% 46% 41%
TOTAL negative 35% 14% 29% 33% 35% 39% 50% 45% 32% 28%
Somewhat negative 23% 7% 19% 24% 25% 25% 33% 29% 22% 18%
Very negative 12% 8% 10% 9% 11% 14% 17% 16% 10% 11%
I prefer not answering 7% 11% 10% 6% 9% 7% 3% 7% 8% 5%

Younger Canadians Believe Multiculturalism Works; Older Canadians, Not So Sure 

I expect a further breakdown by region (urban vs rural, QC vs ROC), cross-referenced to more broad-based attitude polling, may cast more light, or it may simply reflect that younger people, in general, may be less religious.

No surprise, and consistent with other surveys, distrust of Muslims is higher than other religions (they did not ask about Sikhs which generally “rate” between Muslims and other religions). There may be a link between the categories “religious” and Muslims, given perceptions of more religious fundamentalism or conservatism.

Like all polling, one question leads to another …

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Christie Blatchford: Evangelical Christianity and aboriginal healing come together to battle transparency and accountability | National Post

2014/05/26 Leave a comment

Christie Blatchford on Makayla and her family’s decision to stop conventional treatment. I have sympathy with their situation; chemo and related treatments are brutal, and treatment success is generally measured only by 5 year remission rates. However, putting one’s faith in prayer and non-traditional treatments will most likely condemn Makayla to death:

The issues that ought to have been central to the correctness of those decisions — was this little girl capable of making her own decision, and she may well have been, and if not, were her parents acting in her best interests? – were never fully explored.

The authorities effectively looked away. As the result, Makayla is both receiving treatment from aboriginal healers at Six Nations, a reserve near her own, and counting on Jesus – the efficacy of both much in doubt except to fervent believers.

Indeed, if it’s difficult to reconstruct from public reports which came first in the little girl’s story – her religiosity or her aboriginal culture – it’s less tricky to establish which had the greater impact.

Christie Blatchford: Evangelical Christianity and aboriginal healing come together to battle transparency and accountability | National Post.

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New York Times publishes Islamophobic ad by anti-Islam group

2014/05/24 Leave a comment

Contrasting high-brow Islamophobia in the NY Times for The Investigative Report on Terrorism and low-brow on Washington DC buses for Pamela Geller:

NYT Islamophobia

 

Geller Bus ads

The group also purchased a full-page display ad in Wednesday’s print edition New York Times. The all-text ad opened by “commemorating today’s official opening of the National September 11 Memorial Museum.” It went on to warn at great length that mainstream Muslim-American groups such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations were in fact part of a clandestine “radical Islamist” vanguard of a “holy war” that supports terrorism and wishes to continue the efforts of the September 11 attacks. “This is the new form of the jihadist threat we face,” the ad reads.

The Investigative Project on Terrorism has long been criticized as Islamophobic for its campaign against what it describes as a clandestine effort by “radical Muslims” — which they allege includes mainstream rights groups — to infiltrate and destroy the United States from within. The group was founded in 1995 by Steven Emerson, whose 2002 book is titled “American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us.”

Just imagine, a similar ad stating:

Jewish Muslim Hatred: It’s in the Torah. $3 billion in US aid goes to Israel. Stop racism. End all aid to Israel.

New York Times publishes Islamophobic ad by anti-Islam group – Vox.

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5 Things Bill Maher Got Wrong In Latest Islam Rant | Omar Baddar

2014/05/16 Leave a comment

More on the Bill Maher controversy. I think Omar Baddar has it about right:

Ultimately, this isn’t about scoring points against Maher or his panel; this is about making this world a better place. The Muslim world is incredibly diverse, and can by no means be reduced to a single cohesive unit. From Eastern Europe to the horn of Africa, and from Lebanon to Indonesia, we are talking about fundamentally different societies and cultures. Some of these societies are more socially progressive than others; but in all of these societies, there are Muslims who are fighting for women’s rights and against extremism and violence, and they deserve our support against their reactionary opponents. To lump them all together under an ugly stereotype that’s defined by the Muslim world’s worst elements only alienates our progressive allies in Muslim societies and makes their causes all the more difficult to advance.

Bill Maher attempted to cite an Egypt poll, saying it showed that 80-90% of people in the country approved of death as a punishment for leaving Islam. The actual number is 64%, which is still horrifyingly high, and I am alarmed by it. An Israeli or a Palestinian may also be alarmed by the poll that found the majority of Israelis favor discrimination against their non-Jewish neighbors. But how we express these concerns also matters. If some random city in America had a high crime rate in the African American community, and one public official said “I’m concerned about this problem” and another public official said “the blacks are a problem,” which of these two would we all (probably including Bill Maher) condemn as a racist? When concern for certain problems within societies turns into hostility towards inexcusably large groups of people who have little in common beyond some random demographic factor (in this case, religion), then that is a paradigmatic example of bigotry. And this type of bigotry puts entire communities under attack from the outside, thus distracting from their fight to advance and tackle problems within. If Bill Maher wants to take his progressivism seriously, he should really let go of reckless rhetoric and join the real fight to advance progressive causes within and without Muslim societies.

5 Things Bill Maher Got Wrong In Latest Islam Rant | Omar Baddar.

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When Culture Robs Girls of Role Models

2014/05/10 Leave a comment

Good commentary by Amira Elghawaby on the need, within Muslim communities,  to provide more role models and visibility for women in both institutions and in popular culture:

Just take a look at most North American Muslim conferences.  How many women are on stage? From Chicago to Toronto to Ottawa, the answer is, very few. This is not for a lack of successful women leaders in our communities. We have Canadian Muslim women who are doctors, scientists, academics, educators, lawyers, engineers, filmmakers, authors, journalists, activists, editors, entrepreneurs, etc. But for some reason, our community seems unwilling to showcase their talents. Just last year, after praising the success of the Reviving the Islamic Spirit conference which attracts over 20,000 people annually, the well-known American academic, author, and consultant, Dalia Mogahed, nevertheless lamented the dearth of female speakers. Mogahed is one of just over a handful of women who have ever spoken at this immense gathering, now in its 13th year.

What is behind this? Surely, young women and girls deserve to hear from women who are paving the way forward. And, certainly, women were not invisible in Islam’s earliest days as a pioneering faith that recognized gender rights and women’s agency. Why then are our communities today so reluctant in acknowledging and spotlighting female achievements?

There seems to be a disconnect, or, more specifically, confusion around the role of Muslim women in society. There is a deep and ingrained cultural fear about intermingling. That fear is so strong that it has essentially led to the erasure of the female presence from many community institutions.  Take the barriers that have popped up at mosques across North America over the past few decades, making many women feel unwelcome and apart, as chronicled in the 2005 Canadian film Me And the Mosque. While some Muslim women themselves have internalized concerns over intermingling, so much that they cling to the barriers, the fact is that these barriers have come to represent an unwillingness to model respectful interactions between the genders. This emerges out of misplaced concepts of modesty and piety and is perhaps the attitude that led a York University student to famously ask to be exempted from working with female peers.

When Culture Robs Girls of Role Models – New Canadian Media – NCM.

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