UK: State schools should be forced to teach Koran

Abu Hamza, London's most famous muslim cleric (profile)

While the school system in the UK has reached levels of unpopularity unseen for decades, members of the NUT (National Union of Teachers) plan to have the Holy Koran taught in schools.


Part 1: PLAN TO TEACH KORAN IN SCHOOLS (Daily Express)

State schools should be forced to open their doors to Islamic preachers teaching the Koran, the largest classroom union demanded yesterday.

The union’s general secretary Steve Sinnott said that allowing Muslim imams to preach in schools would be a way to reunite divided communities.

Mr Sinnott said: “This is more than simple religious education, it’s religious instruction.”

The proposals include providing private Muslim prayer facilities in schools. But Mr Sinnott stressed that no pupils would be forced to have any religious instruction.

I have a couple of questions for Mr Sinnott. I'll endeavour to keep it simple...

1) Will they teach about democracy in muslim countries?

"In its most recent survey on the state of political freedom and civil liberties around the world, Freedom House found that there is a dramatic, expanding gap in the levels of freedom and democracy between Islamic countries and the rest of the world.

Only 11 of the world's 47 Muslim countries can be categorized as "democracies." This means that a non-Islamic state is more than three times more likely to be democratic as an Islamic state. There are no electoral democracies at all among the 16 Arabic states of the Middle East and northern Africa. There is an even more dramatic freedom gap between majority Islamic countries and the rest of the world. In countries with a Muslim majority, there is just one Free country, Mali, while 18 are rated Partly Free and 28 are Not Free. Of the ten lowest ranking countries in civil liberties, most are Muslim.

This defies the trend in the rest of the world with 2001 being a high water mark for democracy and freedom in general. The Center for Religious Freedom's own survey on religious freedom found that the religious areas with the largest current restrictions on religious freedom are the Islamic countries. In July, the UN released its "Arab Development Report" validating our findings and warning that Arab societies are being crippled by a lack of political freedom, repression of women and intellectual isolation. One statistic that stands out: In the last 1,000 years the whole Arab world translated as many books as Spain does in one year. Another is the fact that half of Arab women are illiterate."

2) Will they teach the hadiths that call for Jews to be killed?

HADITH Sahih Bukhari [4:52:176] Narrated 'Abdullah bin 'Umar:
Allah's Apostle said, "You (i.e. Muslims) will fight with the Jews till some of them will hide behind stones. The stones will (betray them) saying, 'O 'Abdullah (i.e. slave of Allah)! There is a Jew hiding behind me; so kill him.' "

HADITH Sahih Bukhari [4:52:177] Narrated Abu Huraira:
Allah's Apostle said, "The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say. "O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him."

HADITH Sahih Bukhari [4:56:791] Narrated 'Abdullah bin 'Umar:
I heard Allah's Apostle saying, "The Jews will fight with you, and you will be given victory over them so that a stone will say, 'O Muslim! There is a Jew behind me; kill him!' "

HADITH Sahih Muslim [41:6981] Ibn 'Umar reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying:
You will fight against the Jews and you will kill them until even a stone would say: Come here, Muslim, there is a Jew (hiding himself behind me); kill him.

HADITH Sahih Muslim [41:6982] Ubaidullah has reported this hadith with this chain of transmitters (and the Words are): "There is a Jew behind me."

HADITH Sahih Muslim [41:6983] Abdullah b. 'Umar reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying:
You and the Jews would fight against one another until a stone would say: Muslim, here is a Jew behind me; come and kill him.

HADITH Sahih Muslim [41:6984] Abdullah b. 'Umar reported that Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) said:
The Jews will fight against you and you will gain victory over them until the stone would say: Muslim, here is a Jew behind me; kill him.

HADITH Sahih Muslim [41:6985] Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying:
The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but the tree Gharqad would not say, for it is the tree of the Jews.

3) Will they teach the bit that says death to the infidel?

Part 2: ESCAPE FROM THE UK (coming soon)