15 February 2011

Mosque school arrest following Channel 4 documentary

Police have arrested a man concerning alleged assaults on children at a mosque after viewing a Channel 4 documentary screened on Monday.

Dispatches, Lessons in Hate and Violence, secretly filmed a man apparently hitting and kicking children during Qu'ran lessons at a school in the Markazi Jamia mosque at Keighley, West Yorkshire.

An Islamic school in Birmingham in the same documentary, where a preacher was filmed making offensive remarks about non-Muslims, said it would close early for half-term, amid fears pupils could be the target of far-right groups. [guardian.co.uk] Read more

Last night's Dispatches was disturbing, but faith schools are not the problem For me the most disturbing thing about last night’s Dispatches was the schoolteacher’s warning that pupils must stay away from men with less than “a fistful of beard… like you would from a serpent or a snake”.

Leaving aside the pedantic point that a serpent and a snake are the same thing, as someone who is unable to grow a proper Taliban-style “fistful” of beard how would I survive in a society run by Muslim fanatics? (For that matter what about Native Americans?)

Say I wanted to convert to hardline Islam and send my kids to one of those lovely madrassas featured on last night’s programme, can I get beard extensions? After all, they’re strong on discipline, those faith schools – perhaps a bit too strong sometimes. [telegraph.co.uk] Read more

'Muslim Eton' at centre of Channel 4 hate-preaching allegations is forced to shut over far-Right safety fears An Islamic school at the centre of a documentary row will close tomorrow amid safety fears.

Teachers at the Darul Uloom Islamic High School, in Small Heath, Birmingham, have held meetings with police chiefs and fear that youngsters could be targeted by the far-Right.

The Dispatches documentary, Lessons in Hatred and Violence, aired tonight and showed footage of a preacher making offensive remarks about Hindus and ranting: 'Disbelievers are the worst creatures'. [MailOnline] Read more

Religion of bullying Many of today's unruly teenagers could do with a clip round the ear. As Esmerelda points out, it is not so long ago that corporal punishment was common in British schools, and of course some teachers abused this right. But corporal punishment is not the same as bullying, and it is bullying that was demonstrated in last night's Dispatches documentary about a Muslim school.

Bullying started with the teacher, who lashed out at random - with blows, kicks and even throwing a bench at one poor child. The same teacher, and his assistant, turned a blind eye when older boys beat up children half their size. [The Iconoclast] Read more

Dispatches Islamic school to complain to Ofcom An Islamic school in Birmingham says it is drafting a complaint to Ofcom in light of a Channel 4 Dispatches show. Lessons in Hatred and Violence, aired on Monday evening, showed footage of a preacher at Darul Uloom School displaying extreme views.

Head teacher Mujahid Aziz said the school had been misrepresented. Dispatches said it stood by its investigation and that "numerous" adults had been filmed teaching contempt for other religions. [BBC] Read more

Review of C4's 'Lessons in Hate & Violence' Investigative journalism at its best uncovers issues that should warrant further scrutiny or remedial action and presents the media as fourth estate to best effect.

But it’s difficult not to detect in the purported investigative journalism uncovering issues in the Muslim community some degree of tacit social engineering. And last night’s Dispatches programme, like the preceding one on “Undercover Mosque” or the various panorama programmes fronted by John Ware (“A Question of Leadership” or the more recent “British Schools, Islamic Rules”), was no different.

The programme’s presentation of Dr Taj Hargey and the Muslim Educational Centre in Oxford (MECO) as the model Muslim school for teaching Muslim schoolchildren about other faiths and life in Britain is not without the obvious questions: [ENGAGE] Read more