The New York Times last week reported that schools in Germany are offering lessons in Islam to primary school students. Politicians in Hesse suggest that alienation of young Muslims in German society is the primary reason for radicalization, a theory which has considerable traction among terrorism scholars.
So why should Britain take note? If, like me, you went to school in a Western state, you’re likely to have been in a confused, lacklustre and undervalued religious learning environment. Despite some committed individual staff, Religion and Philosophy Studies as it is often termed, usually leaves the pupil perplexed by the vast array of beliefs; unable to tell the difference between Buddhism and Islam, Sikhism and Hinduism. In fact, pretty much all you do learn in this once-a-week, 40-minute lecture that is supposed to cover religion and philosophy is that they are distinguishable only as ‘not Christianity’. How insightful.
There can be little doubt that the current anti-Islamic environment in Britain, and in the rest of Europe, is at least partially due to the ignorance that comes from a lack of school learning. Some 28% of young people, as polled by the BBC, say Britain would be better off without Muslims, whilst 27% actually don’t trust people of Islamic faith. Further, more than a quarter of those polled said Islam was a violent religion. Granted, a small number of followers of Allah are indoctrinated into terrorism by radical clerics or Al-Qaeda teaching, but the view that some Britains hold that Islam itself is dangerous is a gross misunderstanding, one that has led to much unjust violence against Muslims. The abhorrent ignorance of those polled is unfortunately indicative of the population as a whole, as Britain’s history of racist violence and anti-Muslim hate crime shows.
Right wing, white supremacist violence has plagued Britain for many years. In 1998 David Copeland sets off bombs in what he believes is a predominantly Black area of London; a decade later Martyn Gilleard is arrested for conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism against Blacks, Asians, Eastern Europeans and Jews; the next year a group of young Muslims is repeatedly and violently attacked upon leaving evening prayers at City University, London; a few months ago Mohammed Saleem, a Muslim grandfather who at 82 walks with the aid of a stick, is brutally murdered by Pavlo Lapshyn in Birmingham. Where diverse ethnic minorities were previously the targets of attacks, the evidence is clear that Islam is now the preferred focus of violent right wing attacks, as led by the rhetoric of groups such as the English Defence League and the British National Party. The catalogue of right wing terrorist attacks stretches far beyond the number of violent acts carried out by Islamic terrorists.
EDL Protest in Newcastle. Image credit: Gavin Lynn
The United Kingdom has the darkest of pasts with regards to racism, and yet an appropriately prioritsed programme of education to explore and elucidate the differences between Islam and terrorism in order to counter Islamophobia in Britain continues to elude us. Introducing this kind of primary and secondary level education to children and young adults would undoubtedly provide huge benefits. This could change the entire climate of fear and suspicion of Muslims, and create a more integrated society of acceptance of religious freedoms and alternative cultures, and a rejection of religiously motivated hate crimes, the kind of which have become worryingly commonplace in areas of high racial tension.
The New York Times suggests this is imperative since it would reduce alienation and radicalization amongst young Muslims and lead to a safer society.
They miss the fundamental point.
It is not only about making sure young British Muslims do not turn to terrorism, in order to create a safe and secure environment for the population – this implies that the safety of non-Muslims is the paramount issue, and exacerbates the “us versus them” mentality. It is, instead, about social cohesion, tearing down the myths perpetuated by self-interested political scaremongering, which plague our society and poison the minds of those people, particularly the young and uneducated, who are unaware – due to lack of school education on the matter – of the real values of Islam. It is about making people feel safe and secure. But it is also the Muslim communities, the young men and women leaving prayer rooms in London, and the old men of Birmingham, who fear for their lives every day simply because of their religion, they are supposed to be free to practice, that must feel safe and secure. This vision can only be realized by affording our school pupils the opportunity to learn and understand Islam, the real Islam: the tolerance, the acceptance and the charity that to most Muslims so clearly takes precedence over any violence in the Quran. Britain must follow Germany’s example and stop ‘othering’ its own citizens.
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[…] The New York Times last week reported that schools in Germany are offering lessons in Islam to primary school students. Politicians in Hesse suggest that alienation of young Muslims in German society is the primary reason for radicalization, a theory which has considerable traction among terrorism scholars. So why should Britain take note? If, like… […]