Muslim Youths
Muslim youths are angry, frustrated and extremist because they have been mis-educated and de-educated by the British schooling. Muslim children are confused because they are being educated in a wrong place at a wrong time in state schools with non-Muslim monolingual teachers. They face lots of problems of growing up in two distinctive cultural traditions and value systems, which may come into conflict over issues such as the role of women in the society, and adherence to religious and cultural traditions. The conflicting demands made by home and schools on behaviour, loyalties and obligations can be a source of psychological conflict and tension in Muslim youngsters. There are also the issues of racial prejudice and discrimination to deal with, in education and employment. They have been victim of racism and bullying in all walks of life. According to DCSF, 56% of Pakistanis and 54% of Bangladeshi children has been victims of bullies. The first wave of Muslim migrants were happy to send their children to state schools, thinking their children would get a much better education. Than little by little, the overt and covert discrimination in the system turned them off. There are fifteen areas where Muslim parents find themselves offended by state schools.
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[FONT=Times New Roman]The right to education in one’s own comfort zone is a fundamental and inalienable human right that should be available to all people irrespective of their ethnicity or religious background. Schools do not belong to state, they belong to parents. It is the parents’ choice to have faith schools for their children. Bilingual Muslim children need state funded Muslim schools with bilingual Muslim teachers as role models during their developmental periods. There is no place for a non-Muslim teacher or a child in a Muslim school. There are hundreds of state schools where Muslim children are in majority. In my opinion, all such schools may be designated as Muslim community schools. An ICM Poll of British Muslims showed that nearly half wanted their children to attend Muslim schools. There are only 143 Muslim schools. A state funded Muslim school in Birmingham has 220 pupils and more than 1000 applicants chasing just 60.
Majority of anti-Muslim stories are not about terrorism but about Muslim culture--the hijab, Muslim schools, family life and religiosity. Muslims in the west ought to be recognised as a western community, not as an alien culture.
Iftikhar Ahmad
I see the emotion which caused you to write this post.
There may be few youth who are confused but as much as I have seen a large majority of muslim families have their kids achieving many good positions in education and jobs in Britain. Those include lawyers, physicians and financial advisors.
Anyone living in a country must follow the laws of land. Anything which is asked or performed must conform to the local laws.
Cultural norms may not need to be followed or agreed upon but be respected and acknowledged.
Western countries for one or other reason are becoming more and more cosmopolitan..at least the big cities. There is nothing wrong in asking separate schools but living in isolation is not beneficial to anyone. However, just as there are orthodox christian schools, there is nothing wrong with having good standard muslim schools teaching the same basic books in islamic environment...meaning dress code or break for prayer,providing halal/zabiha food etc.
I do see parents anxiety when they feel their young and relatively immature children have to be part of any activity which conflicts with islamic teachings. But this depends how much they are willing to let go. Letting go minor stuff which does not break ties from religion per se is quite alright.
Afterall, many so called islamic countries do not follow islamic laws...so why be adamant in demanding non-muslim countres to follow islamic laws? Off course the country must allow its citizens to exercise their religion freely.
Only way one can do that is by legal methods wherever that person be..islamic or non-islamic country.
Very orthodox muslim families (or even hindus/sikhs etc.) off course will have lots of problems but those families are few. And yet there are families where even parents don't know what is islamic or what is not. They may be so busy in financial aspect of life that they tend to ignore religious aspect. So its not all one sided.
When the youth shows strong will, struggle, and confidence to get better education and become a part of multi-cultural society with dignity, they will definitely be heard.
One thing I must say, parents need to be open to children, let them explore religion themselves but with good assistance available when questions arise.
For this they need to be clear themselves also. Christianity and Judaism are very close religions to Islam as they both teach worshiping same God.
The goal should be to assimilate with others openly and yet keeping essential differences. This is not so hard to achieve.