Author Archives: Bob Pitt

King Fahad Academy cleared over textbooks

Posted on by Bob Pitt

King_Fahad_AcademyA school accused of using textbooks that called Jews “apes” and Christians “pigs” has been cleared of racism by Government Inspectors.

The Saudi-funded King Fahad Academy, in Bromyard Avenue East, Acton, provides a “satisfactory education” according to Ofsted inspectors, who made a surprise visit to the school last Thursday.

Education ministers had ordered an inquiry into the independent school after allegations of “institutionalised racism” surfaced two weeks ago. But the unannounced visit by inspectors found the school met “all the regulations concerning pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural education”.

Inspectors looked at lesson plans, store rooms and documents, as well as randomly interviewing teachers and 30 pupils aged between 13 and 16. They said the school had been “open and co-operative”.

“Lesson observations, curriculum plans and discussion with pupils indicate that there are good opportunities provided for pupils to learn about their own and other cultures and religions,” the report stated. “Pupils express their opinions freely and well, showing good empathy and tolerance of others’ views. They show good awareness of topical issues and knowledge of British institutions. This reflects the school’s stated aims and ethos.”

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Anti-halal protestors get UKIP backing

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Halal meat goes on the menu next week at the Kilburn school where some parents protested at its introduction.

An unsigned newsletter sent on Friday to parents of pupils at Kingsgate School said: “Following parent consultation the governors have decided to provide a halal service at lunchtimes. This service will start on Tuesday, February 27.”

The controversial decision by governors at the Kingsgate Road school to introduce halal meat prompted parents to protest outside the gates two weeks ago. Protester Jacqueline Gomm said: “People say our culture’s not being compromised but it is.”

Gerard Batten, the UK Independence Party’s Euro-MP, has backed Ms Gomm’s campaign, and plans to write to Education Secretary Alan Johnson. “It’s a way of imposing Islamic practices on non-Muslim children, which I find unacceptable,” he said.

Camden New Journal, 22 February 2007

Schoolgirl loses court battle to wear niqab

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A girl aged 12 yesterday lost her bid to be allowed to wear the niqab in class when the high court supported her school’s decision to ban the full-face Muslim veil.

Lawyers for the girl, known in court as X, had argued the Buckinghamshire school’s actions were irrational and infringed her human rights, because it had allowed her three elder sisters to wear the niqab for nine years.

Mr Justice Silber found the veil ban was “proportionate” for identification reasons and because the niqab could jeopardise communication between teacher and pupil. He also accepted the importance of enforcing a school uniform under which girls of different faiths would have a sense of equality and identity within the school’s “ethos”, and the need to avoid peer pressure on other girls to take up the veil.

Last September, when X began wearing the niqab after reaching puberty, she was told it was unacceptable, because teachers felt it would make learning and communication difficult. During the hearing, the judge was told the girl’s sisters all played an active role in the school, that staff had not objected to their niqabs, and that they had achieved high A-level results, disproving the learning impairment argument.

But the court heard they left school some time ago, and since then security concerns had heightened. Of 120 Muslim girls in the 1,300-pupil school, half wear a headscarf or hijab but none wears a niqab.

Lawyers for X, protected by an anonymity order, argued the ban thwarted her “legitimate expectation” she would wear the niqab, and breached her freedom of “thought, conscience and religion” under Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The lawyers said last night she and her family were “bitterly disappointed” and considering an appeal.

Guardian, 22 February 2007

See also BBC News, 21 February 2007

Hardly a surprising judgement, given Mr Justice Silber’s earlier comments.

What every American needs to know about jihad

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Is Islamic jihad just a harmless form of spiritual struggle – as is often argued by Western apologists for radical Islam? Is Jihadi violence simply a twisted, hijacked version of Islam, rejected by traditional Muslims? The David Horowitz Freedom Center’s new Terrorism Awareness Project, which seeks to educate Americans, and especially college students about jihad, confronts questions such as these. It has produced a powerful new flash video, What Every American Needs to Know About Jihad. This video is adapted from a new pamphlet by Robert Spencer, which puts the threat of jihadist ideology into historical perspective. As Spencer makes clear, the religious imperatives of jihad demand the subjugation or killing of infidels and form the poisoned logic of Islamists’ expansionist war against America and the West.”

Front Page Magazine, 21 February 2007

Mosques could outnumber churches, right-wing evangelical Christian warns

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“England is known for its impressive churches. However, they have become increasingly void of worshippers. At the same time, Muslims with mosques have moved in. Some Methodist churches are now inhabited by Muslims due to Methodist parishioners declining in number …. A move-in by Muslims is frightening. However, if Christians slacken, sow their convictions to the winds, as Jesus stated, an empty house will be housed by demons seven times over. That is exactly what appears to be occurring in England, for example. No doubt a European sweep of things forecasts the same spiritual tragedy. All the more that America must remain vigilant in guarding its Judeo-Christian heritage.”

The Reverend Grant Swank at The Conservative Voice, 20 February 2007

MCB advocates ‘Taliban-style conditions’ in state schools, claims Express

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Express Muslims Tell Us How to Run Our Schools“Demands for a ban on ‘un-Islamic’ activities in schools will be set out by the Muslim Council of Britain today.

“Targets include playground games, swimming lessons, school plays, parents’ evenings and even vaccinations. And the calls for all children to be taught in Taliban-style conditions will be launched with the help of a senior Government education adviser….

“Terry Sanderson of the National Secular Society said the report was a ‘recipe for disaster’…. ‘The MCB shouldn’t try to force its religious agenda on children who may not want it. The Government needs to send the MCB packing’.”

Daily Express, 21 February 2007

For the MCB’s actual position, see here.

For the inspiration this sort of irresponsible press coverage provides for the far right, see here.

For a demolition of the Express‘s lies, see Five Chinese Crackers, 21 February 2007

Islamophobic literature distributed at North Carolina school

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group today called for disciplinary action against a public high school teacher in North Carolina who reportedly allowed the distribution of Islamophobic literature in his class.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) says a Muslim parent whose daughter attends the Raleigh, N.C., high school reported that the teacher invited a guest speaker who handed out literature in his ninth-grade social sciences class that compared the teachings of Jesus with false accusations against Islam’s Prophet Muhammad. (Muslims in fact view Jesus as a Prophet of God equal to the Prophet Muhammad.)

Anti-Islam materials, including a pamphlet called “Jesus Not Muhammad,” were handed out in the class by a representative of a North Carolina-based Christian missionary group. The pamphlet labeled the Prophet Muhammad “A criminal,” “Demon Possessed,” and “Inspired by Satan.”

Another document given to the students was titled “Do Not Marry a Muslim Man.” The document stated: “His [Muhammad’s] militant commands and pagan beliefs are contained in the Koran, the book of Islam…. The Koran is the book of Islam that Muhammad claimed was revealed to him by Allah, the moon god of Arabs.”

CAIR press release, 21 February 2007

Update:  See “Teen’s dad says ‘anti-Muslim’ literature handed out in class isn’t freedom of speech”, Fox News, 23 February 2007

Update 2:  See “ACLU of North Carolina to investigate reports of anti-Muslim proselytizing to high school students”, ACLU press release, 27 February 2007

Islamophobia Watch uncovered – shock revelations!

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Over at Western Resistance (and the right-wing US website Family Security Matters) Adrian Morgan exposes two of the evil geniuses behind Islamophobia Watch.

Apparently Eddie Truman is “both a member of Britain’s Communist Party and spokesman of the Scottish Socialist Party”. This will come as a surprise to other leading figures in the SSP, who were under the illusion that Eddie was solely a member of their own party. Now that Morgan’s careful and painstaking research has uncovered this double-dealing, no doubt the SSP will be taking disciplinary action against the two-timing Truman.

As for yours truly, I was “formerly secretary of the Workers Revolutionary Party”. Damn! All those years secretly operating at the head of the WRP, hiding behind the cunning pseudonym “Gerry Healy”, and now I’ve finally been rumbled.

Though, to be fair, Adrian Morgan isn’t opposed to all lefties. He applauds certain “Marxist members of the left” who have condemned the alliance between socialists and Muslims that arose out of the anti-war movement, and he provides a link to an article by Alliance for Workers’ Liberty guru Sean Matgamna (or “Sean Mantegna”, as Morgan prefers to call him) which describes the SWP as the “socialist outrider for Islam in Britain”.

First Melanie Phillips expressing her admiration for him, and now Western Resistance – my, isn’t Sean a popular figure among Islamophobes.