Association of Muslim Governors

[Iftikhar]

Association of Muslim Governors
There is a shortage of school governors and it is difficult to find a Muslim governor in a state schools. A campaign has started to recruit more and more Muslim governors. In 2003, there were only 53 Muslim schools and now there are more than 126 full-time Muslim schools and more are in the pipe line because of racism and anti-Muslim feeling in state schools. The silent majority of Muslim parents would like to send their children to Muslim schools. In my opinion, AOMG and MCB should campaign for more state funded Muslim schools rather than asking for more Muslim governors in state schools. Muslim children are disadvantaged by an education system that perpetuates inequalities. British media and schooling tried their best to mirror Islamic cultural values as inferior, backward traditions and unworthy. This cultural obliteration is being made possible by the negation of the right to speak Urdu and Arabic as well as choice of dress.

I think that Muslim governors in state schools are not going to bring any kind of change. I became the first Muslim governor in Newham in the 70s but left after three years. I was the only Muslim governors and I found it a waste of time. In the 90s, Stratford school in Newham was opted out by the board of governors from the LEA. Majority of governors were Muslims. Within a year there was a conflict with the non-Muslim head teacher and the Secretary of State for Education dismissed all the governors and appointed new governors. The head teacher took early retirement and was awarded round about two hundred and fifty thousands pounds as a reward for getting rid of Muslim governors

There are hundreds of state schools where Muslim pupils are in majority. In my opinion, those schools should be designated as Muslim community schools. State funded Muslim schools are the solution and not the problem. Muslim pupils are bilingual. Bilingualism strengthens their cultural identity and foster educational success. It is such a gift to a child, that it is irresponsible not to encourage its natural development. Trilingual 11-years olds outperform monolingual children in reading tests. They are five times more likely to get five A-C grades at GCSE than those who don?t. Bilingualism and biculturalism should be valued and recognized by the teachers. If children?s education leads them to believe that the language of their parents is somehow ?inferior?, the chances of their feeling out of place in their extra-familial environment are likely to be greater (?banlieux? of Paris, November 2005?). Telling them to ?go home?, to a ?home? where they were not born, is no sort of a solution. The price of ignoring children?s bilingualism is educational failure and social exclusion. Learning to read in three languages has social, emotional and cognitive advantages, according to a study of 5-7 years olds in Watford. The children learn English, Urdu and Arabic at the same time at the age of five.
Iftikhar Ahmad
www.londonschoolofislamics.org.uk

[Samia]

Muslim children are disadvantaged by an education system that perpetuates inequalities. British media and schooling tried their best to mirror Islamic cultural values as inferior, backward traditions and unworthy.

I completely disagree with these two statements (media excepted). You can't compare media with school curriculum. British schools do not teach a religion, but teach religious studies. Some of my muslim university students actually praised the religious studies at their school to the extent that they believed they saved them from abandoning islam altogether, after they started hating it as a result of lessons in islamic religion in the mosque. The British system introduces all religions to the students. If after that they chose Islam, then they do that with their free will, if they do not, it is still their free will.

There are hundreds of state schools where Muslim pupils are in majority. In my opinion, those schools should be designated as Muslim community schools. State funded Muslim schools are the solution and not the problem. Muslim pupils are bilingual. Bilingualism strengthens their cultural identity and foster educational success.

What does religion have to do with bi, tri or qadrilingualism? What about Hindus, Chinese, Koreans and Europeans, to mention but a few, who all have a mother tongue different from English? Should each community establish its own schools?

Being British should mean more integration than separation. Islamic schools are not the solution for religious studies nor for bilingualism strengthening. Their disadvantages weigh more than their advanyages, if any.

Religiously They promote traditional understanding and thus shunt any free thinking. They bombard students with hadiths, heresay and promote irrational thinking. You can't even speak of a "Muslim" school. Which Islam? Sunni? Wahabi? Ahmadi? Shiite?

Linguistically If the child does not learn his mother tongue at home, he will unlikely learn it in school. I do not think you are suggesting schools where the language of teaching and communicating is a foreign language, unless you are planning to send these children back to their parents homeland to get a job there. Even there, they wont be needed as there are plenty of them.

Moreover, children do not have this concept of heritage and culture. They know one thing They want to communicate, and fast.

From my own experience, schools can teach different foreign languages as a second or third language, depending on the ethnic community where the school is. The best example, and a successful one, is the French Lycee abroad (no idea about them in France). They are (French) state schools, and they teach almost whatever language in their communities. My children went to these schools, learned Arabic in them (and English as the major foreign language). The result they are trilingual and did not have any problem continuing their studies in British universities. They studied religious studies. Result They chose to believe in the quraan as compared to other religions they learned about.

[Angel]

i agree with sis samia 100%,

Anyways Iftikhar is just spam, the only thing he ever talks about is faith based schools (check his profile), he never actually replies to any of his threads. He also posts his crap on other forums too. I don't think he actually realised that this is a Quran alone forum D