Thread: Terrorist V Terrorism

London School of Islamics
An Educational Trust
E-mail: [email="info@londonschoolofislamics.org.uk"]info@londonschoolofislamics.org.uk[/email]
[url="http://www.londonschoolofislamics.org.uk"]www.londonschoolofislamics.org.uk[/url]
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Terrorist V Terrorism


British Muslim Community is a victim of racial and religious discrimination in every walk of life, especially in education, employment and housing. After 11th September 2001, the intensity of victimization has increased four folds. Physical and verbal abuse is on the increase and even the Mosques are vandalized. Each and every Muslim is labeled as Osama Bin Laden. Mosques and Muslim organizations are regarded as training centers for terrorists. No religion advocates terrorism. However, West has directed its anger against Islam and Muslims by inventing Islamic Terrorism. It is the fundamental duty of Muslims settled in the West to raise awareness of the spirit and core of Islam.

One by one all Muslim Organizations are going to be classified as ‘Terrorists’. BBC Newsnight has already branded world Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) as terrorist. According to TES, dated 1st Feb2002, Muslimteachers website has been condemned for links to militant Islamic groups. Two dedicated Muslim teachers have set up the website on 1st of January 2002 to support and guide the tiny community of Muslim teachers. The number of Muslim teachers is in decline because young generation of Muslim community is reluctant to join teaching profession. They have experienced and witnessed the discrimination suffered by Muslim teachers in 60s and 70s.

It is absurd to brand Muslimteachers website as a terrorist. Its aim is to provide guidance, share experience and discuss every day issues and problems facing Muslim teachers. It is also going to help British teachers to learn to respect and understand Islamic culture and most misunderstood British Muslim community. An Indian Muslim teacher could not dare to call himself Muslim. He still calls himself black man. The British society is allergic to Islam and Muslim, therefore, as a blackman he is now the Chief Education Officer of LEA Bournemouth. If he would be a practicing Muslim than he would be working as a supply teacher or a part timer. A Muslim has no future prospect as an employee. It is a fact that British teachers have no respect for Islamic faith and subsequently Muslim community, according to research by the Uni of Derby.

Branding Muslims as terrorists is unjust. All the Mosques and Muslim organizations are there for humanitarian, educational and youth works. None of them promotes acts of terrorism or support so called Islamic Terrorism. They are busy in those aspects of education, which are neglected by state schools. They satisfy the needs and demands of the Muslim children and teenagers, which were denied by state schools and LEAs. Without their support and guidance the young generation of Muslim would have lost its Islamic Identity crucial for mental, emotional and personality development. Their contribution will be more effective if all Muslim pupils attend Muslim schools with Muslim teachers. It will help to develop positive co-relation between school and home resulting in raising the standard of education of future Muslim generations. For this purpose, I have a proposition that those state schools where Muslim pupils are in majority may be designated as Muslim Community Schools, managed and controlled by Muslim Educational Trusts and Charities. They are in a better position to educate Muslim children according to their needs and demands. A study by the National Foundation for Educational Research confirmed that all faith schools had better results than their secular counterparts. Conservative spokesman on education, Mr.Damian Green has praised schools affiliated to religious groups, saying Muslim schools deserved “support” not suspicions.

The process of privatization has already been started in Surrey and Islington. The failing LEA of Hackney is going to be managed and controlled by a Trust headed by an ex-OFSTED chairman. The same process can be applied to Muslim majority state schools to satisfy the needs and demands of the silent majority of the Muslim parents who would like to see their children attending Muslim schools with Muslim teachers. Such schools will help to raise the standard of education of the Muslim pupils who will feel proud to be Muslims as well as British.
Iftikhar Ahmad