Muslim Youths

[Iftikhar]

Muslim Youths

Muslim youths are angry, frustrated and extremist because they have been mis-educated and de-educated by the British schooling. Muslim children are confused because they are being educated in a wrong place at a wrong time in state schools with non-Muslim monolingual teachers. They face lots of problems of growing up in two distinctive cultural traditions and value systems, which may come into conflict over issues such as the role of women in the society, and adherence to religious and cultural traditions. The conflicting demands made by home and schools on behaviour, loyalties and obligations can be a source of psychological conflict and tension in Muslim youngsters. There are also the issues of racial prejudice and discrimination to deal with, in education and employment. They have been victim of racism and bullying in all walks of life. According to DCSF, 56% of Pakistanis and 54% of Bangladeshi children has been victims of bullies. The first wave of Muslim migrants were happy to send their children to state schools, thinking their children would get a much better education. Than little by little, the overt and covert discrimination in the system turned them off. There are fifteen areas where Muslim parents find themselves offended by state schools.

The right to education in one’s own comfort zone is a fundamental and inalienable human right that should be available to all people irrespective of their ethnicity or religious background. Schools do not belong to state, they belong to parents. It is the parents’ choice to have faith schools for their children. Bilingual Muslim children need state funded Muslim schools with bilingual Muslim teachers as role models during their developmental periods. There is no place for a non-Muslim teacher or a child in a Muslim school. There are hundreds of state schools where Muslim children are in majority. In my opinion, all such schools may be designated as Muslim community schools. An ICM Poll of British Muslims showed that nearly half wanted their children to attend Muslim schools. There are only 143 Muslim schools. A state funded Muslim school in Birmingham has 220 pupils and more than 1000 applicants chasing just 60.

Majority of anti-Muslim stories are not about terrorism but about Muslim
culture--the hijab, Muslim schools, family life and religiosity. Muslims in the west ought to be recognised as a western community, not as an alien culture.
Iftikhar Ahmad

[Napoleon Chynamite]

Good luck finding sympathy here, although as an Asian-American forum with a liberal slant you'll find that Islam receives a bit more lenience than Christianity because it's not seen as nothing more than a giant system meant to subjugate the world by whitey.

[Sunflare]

As much as this is an interesting subject for discussion, unfortunately issues concerning Islam is something I am not well educated on. But it's good to know about certain aspects of Islam, since there are many Asians around the world that adhere to the Islamic faith.

[snailpoo]

The right to education in one’s own comfort zone is a fundamental and inalienable human right that should be available to all people irrespective of their ethnicity or religious background. Schools do not belong to state, they belong to parents. It is the parents’ choice to have faith schools for their children. Bilingual Muslim children need state funded Muslim schools with bilingual Muslim teachers as role models during their developmental periods. There is no place for a non-Muslim teacher or a child in a Muslim school.

Given the vitrolic reaction here to any religion in schools except atheism, good luck finding a sympathetic ear.

[AliBabaIncorporated]

Schools do not belong to state, they belong to parents. It is the parents’ choice to have faith schools for their children. Bilingual Muslim children need state funded Muslim schools with bilingual Muslim teachers as role models during their developmental periods.
You can't have your cake and eat it too. If the government funds education, it will eventually demand that the education content be altered to fund the government's purposes rather than the parents. And the government generally desires to assimilate students to the dominant culture. This is precisely what happened to French-speaking Catholics of Quebec origin in New England (the Northeastern U.S.) during the 1920s --- the state sought to assimilate them, so it used the leverage of funding to make the schools teach in English. No one except the old folks speak French in New England anymore.

Second, state-sponsored religious education directly causes students to become apathetic towards religion. (See Scandinavia or Turkey, for example). This in fact may be by design rather than by defect, because the government would prefer that citizens have primary loyalty towards the government rather than towards any non-governmental groups (religion, minority ethnicity, etc.).

[Iftikhar]

Salaam

London School of Islamics is an educational Trust. Its aim is to make British public, institutions and media aware of the needs and demands of the Muslim community in the field of education and possible solutions.

The demand for state funded Muslim schools is in accordance with the law of the land.

I do not blame the parents, Imams and Masajid for the plight of the Muslim youths. All Muslim youths suffer from identity crises because they find themselves cut off from their cultural roots, literature and poetry. All of them lack self-confidence and self-esteem. British education has made them stupid. They have become economic slaves of the British society. They do not know where they belong. They are unable to enjoy the beauty of their literature and poetry. A man is a product of his culture, language and faith. They go hand in hand.

The solution of all the problems is state funded Muslim schools with bilingual Muslim teachers as role models right from nursery classes. The Charter of Islam teaches true tolerance and equality and indeed is more acceptable to all people of the world than the United Nation Human Rights Charter. Islam does not just mean a beard, a cap and a bunch of self-interpreted fatwas.

Accoding to a research by Goldsmiths, university of London, bilingual learning can provide substantial benefits for second and third generation children whose families speak a language other than English. Even when children have grown up in the UK with English as their stronger language,using both languages aids cognitive development and strengthens their identity as learners. It is crucial that schools support c hildren's mother tongue through bilingual learning activities connected with the mainstream curriculum. Now Primary National Strategy recognises the value of bilingualism and promotes early language learning. Policy makers need to encourage good practice in schools, otherwise, the potential benefits of bilingual leaning will be lost to future generations.

The research also discovered that many second and third generation children are in danger of losing these skills if they do not have opportunities to develop their mother tongue through academic work at school. Bilingual children who learn in their family's language as well as English do better at school. It is very important that parents continue to talk to their children in their first language.

It is absurd to say that Muslim schools threaten the social cohesion of the nation. Diversity is a blessing and we should feel proud of diversity. The real threat to social cohesiondoes nt come from Muslim parents but from government that seeks to force these parents to conform with the state's ideas about how and what their children should be taught. There is no evidence that Muslim schools are undermining social cohesion.

[VV o n g B a]

many of us will have sympathy for muslim youths insofar as they are marginalized by society in europe. but as mentioned above, this board doesn't embrace religion.

i think this issue will work itself out in a few decades b/c of demographic changes anyways. if muslims continue to outbreed everyone else, they'll simply vote everything they want into place.

[LaiSteve66]

Given the vitrolic reaction here to any religion in schools except atheism, good luck finding a sympathetic ear.

I'm actually very opposed to teaching Atheism in schools.

[popculturepooka]

How do you teach atheism anyways? Is there a curriculum?

[LaiSteve66]

How do you teach atheism anyways? Is there a curriculum?

You just tell the students that there is no god(s). Easy.

[Broomer]

Isn't youth these days tends to be ticked off at one thing or another?
The only thing, seems to me anyway, is that if another group gets angry or violent, the media doesn't give two rats. However, if a muslim does the same thing, then wham bam, there's a terrorist right there.

My experience, they're probably the most "at peace" people I've ever met. It's the beer-brain-dead, footy-testorone-boosted Aussie male that I'd keep one eye out on.

Ka

[Sunflare]

Or the bald headed weefer smoking, extasy trippin, ugly as hell British neo nazi skinheads.

I heard the level of islamophobia is exceptionally high in Great Britian. Which is a stark contrast to places like New York City where many of the Middleeastern persons here are held in high esteem despite the 9/11 attacks.

[AngryABCGirl]

Or the bald headed weefer smoking, extasy trippin, ugly as hell British neo nazi skinheads.

I heard the level of islamophobia is exceptionally high in Great Britian. Which is a stark contrast to places like New York City where many of the Middleeastern persons here are held in high esteem despite the 9/11 attacks.

I think the difference is, and this is based on my experience studying in England and going to NY, in NYC people are generally way more integrated. Especially in terms of different middle eastern and south asian groups running businesses and such, people come into contact with each other on a daily everyday basis. In GB people tend to be a lot more ghetto-ized, and have tend to slide to the lower-end of the socio-economic scale and all the ills that come with it like crime and extremism.

[Broomer]

Or the bald headed weefer smoking, extasy trippin, ugly as hell British neo nazi skinheads.

I heard the level of islamophobia is exceptionally high in Great Britian. Which is a stark contrast to places like New York City where many of the Middleeastern persons here are held in high esteem despite the 9/11 attacks.

We get those here too. Funny thing though is that they're skinny bags of bones who tends to pick on Asian women and children. If there's blokes around, they chicken out. Pretty pathetic really.

Ka