Yearly Archives: 2008

Select committee chair says there is a particular problem with Muslim schools

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Commons children, schools and families select committee will grill the schools secretary, Ed Balls, at a meeting on January 9 about the government’s plans to allow local authorities to open as many faith schools as they want. Members are concerned the plans will damage social cohesion and widen existing divisions.

The committee’s chairman, Barry Sheerman, said: “I am getting reports from people in local government who find it difficult to know what is going on in some faith schools – particularly Muslim schools.”

But Chris Keates, general secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, warned that the debate over Muslim faith schools risked fuelling Islamophobia. “They need to be very careful how they handle this sensitive issue,” she said.

Guardian, 2 January 2008

See also “MPs’ fears on cash for Muslim schools” in the Daily Express, 2 January 2008.

Dutch opinion leaders plead for tolerance

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Dutch opinion leaders published a page-size advertisment in the daily Trouw on Wednesday calling for tolerance and a softer tone in the debate about migration and Islam. In their statement, the 717 signatories, including prominent politicians, artists, authors, relgious leaders and academics, called on the Dutch to “break the downward cycle of intolerance and indifference” in the Netherlands.

Dutch nationals can support the statement by signing it on the website www.benoemenenbouwen.nl.

The statement was initiated by Christian Democrat Doekle Terpstra, who called upon Dutch society to counter the “wilderization,” a sarcastic reference to Dutch liberal-right politician Geert Wilders, one of the Netherlands’ most outspoken Islam critics. Responding to the publication in Trouw, Geert Wilders called the signatories “silly and naive fools.”

Earthtimes, 2 January 2008

See also Dutch News, Expatica and Radio Netherlands.

Barclaycard chief quits over Muslims remark

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A leading bank executive has been forced to quit after making an insulting remark about Muslims. Marc Howells, who was one of Barclaycard’s leading figures, left his £200,000-a-year job after making the quip during a staff meeting as he discussed quarterly figures. Colleagues were stunned when he said: “The results were like Muslims – some were good, some were Shi’ite.” Offended members of staff complained to senior bosses about the “wholly inappropriate” comment.

Daily Telegraph, 1 January 2008

Posted in UK