Wednesday, February 07, 2007
UK Saudi school says Christians and Jews are "repugnant apes" and "monkeys"?
A British Muslim school is teaching children that Jews are “repugnant apes” and Christians “pigs”, a former teacher claims. Colin Cook, 57, says when he raised his concerns to chiefs at the Saudi government-funded King Fahad Academy in West London he was told: “This is not England. It is Saudi Arabia.” Some of the 1,250 pupils at the faith school are alleged to have been heard idolising Osama bin Laden, praising 9/11 and saying they want to “kill Americans”. Mr Cook is himself allegedly a Muslim [we note he does not have a Muslim name, it seems].
Various reports seem to agree with the above assessment. I would add that Jewish schools in the UK which I have (very rarely) seen have also seemed somewhat on the defensive, but not so vigorously and obviously. The Christian schools tend to vary from decent enough to downright eccentric and I feel that overt eccentricity cannot benefit any school in the long term. My personal preference would be in favour of secular schooling with perhaps a little sparse education (in 'scripture classes') of all religions, which indeed I had as a youngster. It certainly did not stop me from reading the interesting work of Patanjali, hardly a Christian or a Muslim, as a child !
IMO: Perhaps this Muslim School disclosure, no doubt one of many potential disclosures, should be construed as a serious blow to any "faith schools" education project such as the UK under B.Liar are trying. But it also could illustrate the need for ways and means of improvement in morally backward countries like Saudi Arabia. Certainly Saudi Arabia itself seems to have moved Wahabi teachings backwards. When I was a Muslim scholar they assumed, I think, that I had been a Christian but did not even imagine saying that that made me a pig. Backward Saudi teachings have no doubt come to that but up to a point they are trying to defend their faith against foreigners. It is a pity that such teachings seem to have spilled over to the Pakistani madrassas which without substantial revisions must be closed down or bombed out anyway. Such teachings are not Asian but are Western Saudi Wahabi propaganda, and could easily be fairly construed as a misrepresentation of the faith of Islam.
Various reports seem to agree with the above assessment. I would add that Jewish schools in the UK which I have (very rarely) seen have also seemed somewhat on the defensive, but not so vigorously and obviously. The Christian schools tend to vary from decent enough to downright eccentric and I feel that overt eccentricity cannot benefit any school in the long term. My personal preference would be in favour of secular schooling with perhaps a little sparse education (in 'scripture classes') of all religions, which indeed I had as a youngster. It certainly did not stop me from reading the interesting work of Patanjali, hardly a Christian or a Muslim, as a child !
IMO: Perhaps this Muslim School disclosure, no doubt one of many potential disclosures, should be construed as a serious blow to any "faith schools" education project such as the UK under B.Liar are trying. But it also could illustrate the need for ways and means of improvement in morally backward countries like Saudi Arabia. Certainly Saudi Arabia itself seems to have moved Wahabi teachings backwards. When I was a Muslim scholar they assumed, I think, that I had been a Christian but did not even imagine saying that that made me a pig. Backward Saudi teachings have no doubt come to that but up to a point they are trying to defend their faith against foreigners. It is a pity that such teachings seem to have spilled over to the Pakistani madrassas which without substantial revisions must be closed down or bombed out anyway. Such teachings are not Asian but are Western Saudi Wahabi propaganda, and could easily be fairly construed as a misrepresentation of the faith of Islam.
# posted by uv : 2:33 AM
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