At the Jamia Mosque on Victor Street in this racially and religiously tense town, Idris Watts, a teacher and convert to Islam, tackled a seemingly mundane subject with a dozen teenage boys: why it is better to have a job than to be unemployed.
“The prophet said you should learn a trade,” Mr. Watts told the students arrayed in a semicircle before him. “What do you think he means by that?”
“If you get a trade it’s good because then you can pass it on,” said Safraan Mahmood, 15.
“You feel better when you’re standing on your own feet,” offered Ossama Hussain, 14.
The back and forth represented something new in Britain’s mosques: a government-financed effort to teach basic citizenship issues in a special curriculum intended to reach students who might be vulnerable to Islamic extremism.
In the long haul, the British government hopes that such civics classes, which use the Koran to answer questions about daily life, will replace the often tedious and sometimes hard-core religious lessons taught in many mosques across the land. Often, these lessons emphasize rote learning of the Koran and are taught by imams who were born in Pakistan and speak little English and have little contact with British society.
Ya know, there might be a good side to this malarky. Perhaps government meddling will destroy Islam like it has destroyed Christianity.
I think this is a really good idea. Obviously, there is seething resentment among some British Muslims; talking about these issues and what the Korean really says may help young people resist the false teachings and claims presented to them by the extremists. Educating the community, particularly through the Muslim schools, could work.
Bradford is my hometown. Anyone who is familiar with the city will see this as a well intentioned “band-aid” solution.
Almost 40% of babies born in the city are of Pakistani heritage, many of their mothers observe purdah, and wear the hejab.
As a community, Muslims in the UK love all the advantages of living in a [nominally] Christian nation, but expect to be allowed to live as they would in Pakistan. More significantly, they expect concessions from everyone else, but refuse to compromise themselves.
“You’re working in the garden with a sharp implement, when you look up and see your sister talking to the infidel next door. What would Mohammed do?”
Better not ask.
“You’re 53 years old and have been married eleven times, concurrently. Your good friend and ally has a pretty nine year old girl. What would Muhammad do?”
“A woman poet – let’s call her Asma – writes satirical songs mocking your claim to receive messages from Allah. What would Muhammad do?”
“A tribe of Jews – let’s call them Banu Qurayza – resisted you but you’ve defeated them and taken them prisoner. What would Muhammad do?”
“Your adopted son has divorced his wife – let’s call her Zeinab. She’s young and needs a husband, of course. What would Muhammad do?”
For the answers to the Gordian’s questions, read Robert Spencer’s “The Truth About Muhammad.” He provides answers from the Koran and the accepted Islamic hadiths, the traditions about Muhammad. These are not Western propaganda, but straight Islamic teaching.
And #5, she was six when he married her, and nine when the union was consummated.
#9 – I know, I was giving them the benefit of taqiyya. Child betrothals are still known in the Christian world, e.g. India, but not child consummation.
Idris Watts, I believe, was raised as an English Catholic, so he ought to be able to comapre Jesus with Muhammad.
The truth is that the present day UK, along with many other places, is quite unable to give an objective, historically neutral portrayal of Muhammad in its public discourse (while allowing Islamic propaganda in a TV program about ‘the Muslim view of Jesus’ or even paying for, through the BBC, blasphemous portrayals of Christ). Not too surprising, given that the chattering classes there positively hate Christianity while they fear Islam. Serious historical study of Islam – something the chattering classes are incapable of doing – would cause an uproar, so it’s avoided.