03-16-2013, 06:54 PM
<div>For the fifth consecutive year, the year 11 students of
Jamea Al-Kauthar have attained above 90% in achieving A*-C grades in 5 GCSE
subjects or more which includes English Language, English Literature, Maths,
Science, additional Science and Urdu.
I feel sorry to read the bad publicity about the Jamea. In
the past, Muslim schools have been regarded by a teaching Union as training
grounds for terrorism. British media and establishment could not find any proof
of that. Now British establishment is accusing a Muslim school for sexual
grooming of Muslim girls by Muslim males. I hope with the Grace of Allah, Jamea
would come clean.
Actually, British society does not want to see Muslim
schools educating Muslim children. I hope one day all Muslim children would be
in state funded Muslim schools with Muslim teachers as role models during their
developmental period. it is a crime against humanity to send Muslim children in
state schools with non-Muslim monolingual teachers.
Muslim migrants are living in a society which is
institutionally racist. Brits must learn to respect and tolerate those who are
different.Children should be taught about living religions so that they could
learn to respect and tolerate those who are in their schools or who live near
their own homes. British schooling is the home of institutional racism and
British teachers are chicken racist. This is one of the main reason why Muslim
parents would like to send their children to Muslim schools. I set up the first
Muslim school in 1981 in Stratford, London in 1981 and now there are 188 Muslim
schools and only 12 are state funded. I would like to see each and every Muslim
child in a state funded Muslim school. I hope my dream would come true one
day.
Muslim families are as entitled as any other religious
group to schools that nurture their children's faith. Muslim pupils should be
educated in Muslim schools because the current system is marginalising them.
Teaching Muslim children in a Muslim school would remove the "problem of them
being exposed" to values that conflict with Islamic faith. Muslim pupils are
disadvantaged and marginalised in the city's state schools because the cultural
heritage of the curriculum is "European and Christian".
The silent majority of Muslim parents
would like to send their children to state funded Muslim schools. They are not
extremists who want to change of ethos of those schools where Muslim children are in majority. It is the democratic right of every
Muslim parent to see that their children receive balanced education, so that
when their children grow up, they do not find themselves cut off from their
cultural roots and linguistic skills. It is a question of common sense, humanity
and reason that bilingual Muslim children must be educated in state funded
Muslim schools with bilingual Muslim teachers as role models during their
developmental periods. The whole world believes that people who speak more than
one language is a vital economic asset. Pupils who speak more than one language
do not cause difficulties. It is the politicians and monolingual teachers who
are the problems for bilingual pupils. Muslim school will help to cultivate the
child into a healthy, fully flourishing individual with a passion for
learning.
Muslim faith schools are more or less bilingual schools. Priority
will be given to the teaching of Standard English, Arabic, Urdu and other
community languages. All Muslim children will learn and be well versed in
Standard English and Quranic Arabic and at the same time they will learn and be
well versed in one of the community language to keep in touch with their
cultural roots and enjoy the beauty of their literature and poetry. Majority of
children will learn Urdu language because it is a lingua franca of the migrants
from the sub-continent. And majority of British Muslims are from Pakistan and
their national language is Urdu.
There are hundreds of state and church schools where
Muslim children are in majority. In my opinion, all such schools may be opted
out as Muslim Academies. Muslim children need bilingual Muslim teachers as role
models during their developmental period. There is no place for a non-Muslim
child or a teacher in a Muslim school.
Iftikhar Ahmad
London School of Islamics Trust
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