BY ALEXANDER MELEAGROU-HITCHENS 

In ‘The God Delusion’, Richard Dawkins refers to the religious indoctrination of children as a form of abuse: it petrifies them with stories of hell and damnation, while simultaneously stunting their capacity for independent thought and reason.  Haringey Council – no strangers to the failure of providing proper care to local children - is clearly not a fan of this idea: on Friday it gave its backing to a school run by religious extremists Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT).

The Press Association has reported that Haringey Council has resumed its funding of the Islamic Shakhsiyah Foundation (ISF) – an educational charity with links to (HT) - after its investigators reported that they had found no evidence of ‘inappropriate influence’ at a school run by the ISF.

A report by the Centre for Social Cohesion (CSC) first revealed that the ISF was receiving government money despite its clear links with a revolutionary Islamist cult.  This was taken up by the Conservative Party and David Cameron made it the main focus of Prime Minister’s Questions in late November.  Labour, and Schools Secretary Ed Balls in particular, have since stuck their heads in the sand and refused to acknowledge any problem with funding the indoctrination of young children by a group that wish to overthrow secular society (of course, as Nick Cohen wrote last month, Labour are not exactly big fans of secularism either any more).

The first question that should be asked of the Haringey investigators is if they have seen the ISF curriculum that was being taught to children in 2005, the year that the school were approved by OFSTED.  The CSC have now released details of this curriculum, which we have in our possession.  Of particualar interest is the curriculum’s section on jihad, where 9 and 10 year olds are taught that violent jihad is a legitimate form of worship:

• Da’wa [proselytising] and jihad fisabeelillah [fighting in the path of Allah] are also Ibadah [worship]
• The Ahkaam [rules] of Da’wa
• The Ahkaam and limits of jihad as taught by the classical scholars. (It is important to clearly define the situations in which jihad is permitted and those where it is not.
• Muslims are accountable if they do not follow these rules

Also here is how the curriculum advises teachers on how to approach that oh so blasphemous subject of democracy:

• Islam is a Deen [faith], contrast briefly to other belief systems where human beings make rules
• Briefly introduce the concept of democracy
• Our rules and laws come from Allah (swt)

The very existance of sectarian faith schools in the UK – which often teach children who have been given no choice about their attendance – is bad enough.  The ISF schools take it a step further, teaching children to effectively seperate from kufr (non Muslim) society and support the violent acts of jihadists in ‘Muslim countries’.

In the case of ‘Baby P’, Haringey Council were unable to identify blatant physical torture that lead to the death of a toddler.  Now they have similarly failed to stop the destruction of young minds, instead allowing a religious cult to turn British children against their own society.

focusonislamism@standpointmag.co.uk 

Stop asking children how they feel