Young, British Muslims ‘getting more radical’

Tuesday, 28 November 2006 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6190080.stm

Ethnic and religious courts are gaining ground in the UK. Will this lead to different justice for different people?

Aydarus Yusuf has lived in the UK for the past 15 years, but he feels more bound by the traditional law of his country of birth – Somalia – than he does by the law of England and Wales.

“Us Somalis, wherever we are in the world, we have our own law. It’s not Islamic, it’s not religious – it’s just a cultural thing.”

The 29-year-old youth worker wants to ensure that other members of his community remain subject to the law of their ancestors too – he helps convene an unofficial Somali court, or “gar”, in south-east London.

Aydarus is not alone in this desire. A number of parallel legal universes have been quietly evolving among minority communities. As well as Somali customary law, Islamic and Jewish laws are being applied and enforced in parts of the UK.

Islamic and Jewish law remains confined to civil matters. But the BBC’s Law in Action programme has learned that the Somali court hears criminal cases too.

One of the most serious cases it has dealt with was the “trial” of a group of young men accused of stabbing a fellow Somali.

So how did this court come about? Some academic lawyers see these alternative legal systems as an inevitable – and welcome – consequence of multiculturalism.

Dr Prakash Shah, of London’s Queen Mary University, advocates this “legal pluralism”.

“Tribunals like the Somali court could be more effective than the formal legal system in maintaining social harmony.”

Mohammed Shahid Raza, a leading Islamic scholar, claims “When Britain was ruling India, there was a separate legal code for Muslims, organised and regulated by British experts of law.”

There is already a network of Sharia councils in the UK. They are not recognised as courts but are seen as essential by those Muslims seeking advice and religious sanction in matters such as divorce.

Cassandra Balchin, a convert to Islam and spokeswoman for the group Women Living Under Muslim Laws, is concerned about the growth of these minority legal systems.

Despite Ms Balchin’s fears, Sharia councils have already begun to follow the Jewish model of turning themselves into recognised courts of arbitration.

Who’s warming to the idea that multiculturalism is a nightmare?

An Islamic school is poisoning the minds of pupils with lessons in hate, a former teacher claims.

Colin Cook, 57, says textbooks used by children as young as five at the King Fahad Academy in Acton describe Jews as “repugnant” and “apes” and Christians as “pigs“.

Pupils have allegedly been heard saying they want to “kill Americans“, praising 9/11 and idolising Osama bin Laden as their “hero“.

There are fears that it could become a breeding ground for terrorists with Mr Cook warning: “The school could produce a dangerous harvest.”

Its sister school of the same name in Bonn has been singled out by the German intelligence services as a meeting place for activists linked to terrorism.

Mr Cook, a Muslim convert, taught English at the school for 19 years until he was sacked in December last year.

He claims he was fired after blowing the whistle on the school for covering up cheating by children in GCSE exams and is bringing a tribunal claim for unfair dismissal, race discrimination and victimisation.

He also alleges that when he complained to school management about the content of the curriculum and questioned whether it complied with British laws, he was told: “This is not England. It is Saudi Arabia“.

He said that the school was “very good” until the majority of British teachers left in 2005. He said: “Since then, there has been a move towards a pro-Saudi agenda.

“It is clearly racist and very divisive. I understand now why the pupils express anti-Western views at school. It is deeply immoral to put such ideas into the heads of young children.

Mr Cook’s solicitor Lawrence Davies said: “Faith schools are legitimate but they must not be used to propagate a racist agenda. Every faith school must be properly inspected. And those that promote the terrorist mindset must be called to account.”

The school denies all his allegations and claims he was rightly dismissed for misconduct. Opened in 1985 for the offspring of Saudi diplomats in London, it is named after the former Saudi king and funded by that country’s government.

But the overwhelming majority of its 750 pupils are now the children of British Muslims. The school – which teaches pupils up to the age of 18 – devotes around half of lessons to religious education and teaches almost all classes in Arabic, with boys and girls following different curriculums.

In the past, parents have claimed that the school is teaching British children fundamentalist Islam while giving girls an inferior education.

Ofsted, which inspected the school in March 2006, made a series of criticisms of its performance and refused to give it full registration as an independent school.

It warned that while the quality of teaching was good, there had been “major changes in staffing” which led to disruption, and told the school to improve the curriculum.

In papers submitted to Watford employment tribunal, Mr Cook says that most of the school’s teachers are Saudis who speak little or no English.

Mr Cook’s lessons formed part of a British curriculum while a second Saudi curriculum was taught in Arabic. Mr Cooks claims that textbooks used on the Saudi curriculum, which are published by the Saudi government’s ministry of education, prove that the academy “is institutionally racist“.

He said: “The textbooks apparently state that the Jews are cursed. Pupils are asked to ‘ mention some repugnant characteristics of Jews‘.”

Mr Cook said pupils are taught that religions including Christianity and Judaism are “worthless“. He said: “The teachers on the Saudi curriculum presumably either endorse this racist viewpoint or teach it without complaint.”

Mr Cook claims he was sacked after he reported pupils cheating to exams board Edexcel. He said that staff allowed pupils to refer to their own, heavily annotated course books during an English language GCSE exam.

He said: “The Academy knows that cheating occurred. The boys who did cheat and those who probably cheated were not investigated or sanctioned. Mr Cook was fired in December after being accused of gross misconduct.

He said: “It was unlawful to sack me for whistle-blowing in these circumstances. A Saudi national would not have been treated in this adverse manner.”

The school claims that Mr Cook was rightly dismissed for misconduct connected to the exams procedure. His tribunal is due to take place later this year.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23384311-details/Pupils+aged+five+%22poisoned%22+at+Islamic+school+that+%22teaches+hate%22/article.do

All these stories are comming to light after years of investigations, how many are in the pipeline?

You can have multiculturalism, but you cant have peace.

You can have peace, with a firm belief system that the VAST majority adhere to.

The editor of a Cambridge University college newspaper was in hiding last night after his attempt at religious satire backfired.

The 19-year-old aspiring journalist, who has not been named, is under investigation by the authorities at Clare College who described the issue of the student newspaper Clarefication as “abhorrent”.

Most inflammatory was the infamous cartoon of the Prophet Mohamed, which was printed in the Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten in September 2005, triggering violent protests among some Muslims in which four people died.

For his own safety, the student has been taken out of his accommodation and put in a secure place. The newspaper had been renamed Crucification for the special edition on religious satire. The front page included the headline: “Ayatollah rethinks stance on misunderstood Rushdie”.

On page six, pictures were shown of Muslims holding placards reading: “Behead those who insult Islam” and “Freedom go to Hell“. Enraged students have bombarded the Union of Clare Students with complaints and the vice-president of the university’s Islamic society described it as “hugely offensive” and “crude unabashed prejudice”.

In a rare move, Clare College fellows have called a Court of Discipline, which will sit in judgment on the student. An insider at the college said: “It’s the first time in living memory a Court of Discipline has been set up.”

The college chaplain has also been involved in talks aimed at trying to ease racial tension and is known to have met members of the Islamic Society and a local imam to discuss how best to quell fears over potential racial clashes.

The senior tutor at Clare College, Patricia Fara, said: “The college finds the publication and the views expressed abhorrent. Reflecting the gravity of the situation, the college immediately began an investigation and disciplinary procedures are in train.”

The college has now cut the newspaper’s funding.

http://education.independent.co.uk/news/article2261499.ece

And your point is…

I spose you think that im not allowed to feel proud of my nationality and skin colour?

In a recent programme on channel4, several everyday members of our white society took part in finding out their % DNA history.

NOT ONE had any african ancestry.

Since 1948, the multicultural experiment has set out to brainwash our society’s population into thinking we all eminate from Africa, meaning we are all “one”.

Occam’s razor, the simplest explanation tends to be the correct one.

In 2007, the facts are who and what i am, white and English.

A pro multiculturalist said recently, words to the effect of, ive been living here all my life, but my family roots all come from Hungary. If i went to Hungary, i would feel like a stranger.