In this mailing:
- Soeren Kern: How Political Correctness Is Transforming British Education
- Aidan Clay: Egypt's Power Struggle and the Fate of Christians
- Yaakov Lappin: Israel Preparing for al-Qaeda on its Borders
How Political Correctness Is Transforming British Education
by Soeren Kern
July 16, 2012 at 5:00 am
July 16, 2012 at 5:00 am
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British
teachers are also reluctant to discuss the medieval Crusades, in which
Christians fought Muslim armies for control of Jerusalem: lessons often
contradict what is taught in local mosques.
In Cheshire, two students at the Alsager
High School were punished by their teacher for refusing to pray to Allah as
part of their religious education class.
In Scotland, 30 non-Muslim children from the
Parkview Primary School recently were required to visit the Bait ur Rehman
Ahmadiyya mosque in the Yorkhill district of Glasgow (videos here and here). At the mosque, the
children were instructed to recite the shahada, the Muslim declaration
of faith which states: "There is no god but Allah and Mohammed is his
messenger." Muslims are also demanding that Islamic preachers be sent to
every school in Scotland to teach children about Islam, ostensibly in an
effort to end negative attitudes about Muslims.
British schools are increasingly dropping the
Jewish Holocaust from history lessons to avoid offending Muslim pupils,
according to a report entitled, Teaching
Emotive and Controversial History, commissioned by the Department for
Education and Skills.
British teachers are also reluctant to discuss
the medieval Crusades, in which Christians fought Muslim armies for control of
Jerusalem: lessons often contradict what is taught in local mosques.
In an effort to counter
"Islamophobia" in British schools, teachers now are required to
teach "key Muslim contributions such as Algebra and the number zero"
in math and science courses, even though the concept of zero originated in
India.
In the East London district of Tower Hamlets,
four Muslims were recently jailed
for attacking a local white teacher who gave religious studies lessons to
Muslim girls; and 85 out of 90 schools have implemented "no pork"
policies.
Schools across Britain are, in fact,
increasingly banning pork from lunch menus to avoid offending Muslim students.
Hundreds of schools have adopted a "no pork" policy, according
to a recent report by the London-based Daily Telegraph.
The culinary restrictions join a long list of
politically correct changes that gradually are bringing hundreds of British
primary and secondary education into conformity with Islamic Sharia law.
The London Borough of Haringey, a heavily
Muslim district in North London, is the latest school district to switch to a
menu that is fully halal
(religiously permissible for Muslims).
The Haringey Town Council recently
issued "best practice" advice to all schools in its area to "ban
all pork products in order to cater for the needs of staff and pupils who are
not permitted contact with these for religious reasons."
Local politicians have criticized the new
policy as pandering to Muslims, and local farmers, who have pointed out that
all schools in Britain already offer vegetarian options, have accused school
administrators of depriving non-Muslim children of a choice.
Following an outcry from non-Muslim parents,
the town council removed the guidance from its website, although the new policy
remains in place.
At the Cypress Junior School, in Croydon, south
London, school administrators announced in the school
newsletter dated June 1, 2012 that the school has opted for a pork-free
menu "as a result of pupil and parental feedback."
The announcement states: "Whilst beef,
chicken, turkey and fish will all feature, as well as the daily vegetarian and
jacket potato or pasta option, the sausages served will now be chicken rather
than pork."
In Luton, an industrial city some 50 kilometers
(30 miles) north of London where more than 15% of the population is now Muslim,
23 out of 57 schools have banned pork.
In the City of Bradford, a borough of West
Yorkshire in Northern England where there are now twice
as many practicing Muslims that there are practicing Anglicans, 24 out of
160 schools have eliminated pork from their menus. In Newham (East London), 25
out of 75 schools have banned pork.
Other pork-free schools include Cranford Park Primary School
in Hayes (Middlesex), and Dog Kennel Hill
Primary in East Dulwich (South London).
The Borough
of Harrow in northwest London was among the first in Britain to encourage
halal menus. In 2010, Harrow Council announced plans to ban pork in the
borough's 52 state primary schools, following a switch by ten secondary schools
to offer halal-only menus.
According to the UK-based National Pig Association, which
represents commercial pork producers, "It is disappointing that schools
cannot be sufficiently organized to give children a choice of meat. Sausages
and roast pork are staples of a British diet and children enjoy eating them. If
products can be labeled with warnings that they contain nuts and vegetarian
dishes can be made and kept separate from meat dishes, [we] don't see why the
same can't apply to pork."
Lunch menus are not the only area in which
"cultural sensitivity" is escalating in British schools.
In West Yorkshire, the Park Road Junior Infant
and Nursery School in Batley has banned stories featuring pigs, including
"The
Three Little Pigs," in case they offend Muslim children.
In Nottingham, the Greenwood
Primary School cancelled a Christmas nativity play; it interfered with the
Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha. In Scarborough, the Yorkshire
Coast College removed the words Christmas and Easter from their calendar
not to offend Muslims.
Also in Cheshire, a 14-year-old Roman Catholic
girl who attends Ellesmere
Port Catholic High School was branded a truant by teachers for refusing to
dress like a Muslim and visit a mosque.
In Stoke-on-Trent,
schools have been ordered to rearrange exams, cancel swimming lessons and stop
sex education during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. In Norwich, the Knowland
Grove Community First School has axed the traditional Christmas play to
"look at some of the other great cultural festivals of the world."
Meanwhile, the politically correct ban on pigs
in Britain also extends to toys for children. A toy farm set called HappyLand
Goosefeather Farm recently removed pigs in order to avoid offending
Muslims.
The pig removal came to public attention after
a British mother bought the toy as a present for her daughter's first birthday.
Although the set contained a model of a cow, sheep, chicken, horse and dog,
there was no pig, despite there being a sty and a button which generated an
"oink" sound.
After the mother complained, the Early Learning
Centre (ELC), which manufactures the toy, responded: "Previously the pig
was part of the Goosefeather Farm. However due to customer feedback and
religious reasons this is no longer part of the farm."
After a public outcry, however, ELC
later reversed its decision: "We recognize that pigs are familiar farm
animals, especially for our UK customers. We have taken the decision to
reinstate the pig and to no longer sell the set in international markets where
it might create an issue."
Soeren
Kern is Senior Fellow for European Politics at the Madrid-based
Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group. Follow him on Facebook.
Related Topics: United
Kingdom | Soeren Kern
Egypt's Power Struggle and the Fate of Christians
by Aidan Clay
July 16, 2012 at 4:30 am
July 16, 2012 at 4:30 am
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Egypt's
Coptic Christian minority fears that the restoration of parliament, which will
grant greater power to Islamists, will be used to institute Sharia law and
stifle religious freedom.
In defiance of Egypt's top generals and highest
court, Muslim Brotherhood President-elect Mohammed Morsi reopened parliament
last Tuesday. In only his third week in office, Morsi's rapid-fire pursuit to
broaden the Brotherhood's power openly challenged the country's ruling military
council.
Egypt's Coptic Christian minority fears that
the restoration of parliament, which will grant greater powers to Islamists,
will be used to institute Sharia law and stifle religious freedom.
Egypt's lower chamber, the People's Assembly,
convened on July 10, after a ruling by the Supreme Constitutional Court on June
14 ordering the parliament's dissolution. Saad el-Katatni, the assembly's
speaker, told
lawmakers the session was being held to seek a "second opinion" by an
appellate court in an effort to reinstate the Islamist-dominated legislature.
The court, however, did not accede to the chamber's request; it upheld its earlier
ruling that the parliament had been elected unconstitutionally and that its
dissolution was "final and binding."
If the parliament were to be reinstated, the
Muslim Brotherhood—which holds nearly half the seats in the Islamist-dominated
assembly—would head both the legislature and the presidency. Yet, a
Brotherhood-controlled civilian government appears to be what Egypt's ruling
generals fear most. Only a week prior to Morsi's announcement as president, the
military announced a constitutional declaration on June 17 that expands its
control over civilian politicians and strips the head of state of most of his
powers. Morsi's move to defy the court ruling by reconvening parliament was not
only considered to be illegal by the military council, but also a direct
challenge to the establishment's authority.
In a warning to the president, the military
said it would support the country's "legitimacy, constitution and
law" by upholding the court's ruling. "[This is] language that means
[the military] will not stand by and watch the rulings of the country's top
court ignored or breached," the Christian Science Monitor reported.
Despite the military's grip on power, Bret
Stephens, an editor of The Wall Street Journal, argues
that Egypt has already been "lost" to Islamists and that a radical
future, similar to what was seen in Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, lingers on
the horizon. "Egypt under the Brotherhood will seek to arm Hamas and
remilitarize the Sinai. By degrees, it will seek to extract concessions from
the U.S. as the price of its good behavior. By degrees, it will make radical
alliances in the Middle East and beyond."
Daniel Pipes, President of the Middle East
Forum, argues the contrary, however, saying that the military, not the
Brotherhood, has the ultimate power in Egypt. "Not only was the [presidential]
election symbolic, but it was also illusory, in that the military leadership
scripted it," Pipes wrote
in an op-ed for The Washington Times. "[Mohammed Morsi's] job is
undefined. A military coup could brush him aside… Mohamed Tantawi is the real
ruler of Egypt. Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF),
field marshal, and minister of defense, he serves not only as the commander-in-chief
but also as the effective head of all three of Egypt's branches of government…
The [military] exploits the Muslim Brotherhood and other proxies as its
civilian fronts, a role they are happy to play, as it has permitted the
Islamists to garner an outsized percentage of the parliamentary vote and then
to win the presidency."
Egypt's Coptic Christian minority, who make up
10 percent of the population, hope that Pipes is right; they are fearful that
if the Brotherhood gains leverage over the military, the country could quickly
transform into an Islamic state.
"There is a Brotherhood strategy to work
toward building an Islamic country," Yousef Sidhom, editor of the weekly
Watani newspaper and a Coptic Church official, told
The Associated Press. He added that the Brotherhood will withhold government
positions from Christians, tax non-Muslims, and base education around Islam.
The Brotherhood will not likely accede to
pressure by the military: its members vowed to "fight in the courts and
the streets to reinstate the Parliament," according to The
New York Times. Prior to the reconvening of parliament, the Brotherhood's
Secretary-General, Mahmoud Hussein, called
for a "million-man march" to "regain the parliament," and
denounced the military's hold on power. A few hundred protestors supporting the
Brotherhood responded to the call in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Monday, chanting,
"We love you Morsi," and "Down with military rule."
"This may end being a game of 'chicken'
[to see] who withdraws his decision first," Dr. Omar Ashour, a scholar at
the Brookings Doha Center and director of the Middle East Politics Graduate
Studies Program at the University of Exeter, told
msnbc.com.
All Egyptians, including Christians, anticipate
the power struggle, which Reuters labeled
"a war of attrition," to be far from over. More battles lie ahead,
including the drafting of Egypt's constitution, the right of which last month
was stripped from the parliament in a decree that authorizes the military to
appoint the body to write the document. In this confrontation for power,
nothing less than the very ideals of Egypt's revolution—mainly that a
democratically elected government would replace the military—are at stake.
Related Topics: Egypt
| Aidan
Clay
Israel Preparing for al-Qaeda on its Borders
by Yaakov Lappin
July 16, 2012 at 4:00 am
July 16, 2012 at 4:00 am
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Hamas, for
its part, has no problem with al-Qaeda launching attacks on Israel from Sinai,
but it does have a problem with al-Qaeda challenging its rule.
As the Middle East continues to be rocked by
instability and the old regional order crumbles, Israeli security forces are
preparing for an increased al-Qaeda presence along the country's borders.
The past decade has shown that the al-Qaeda
network thrives in failed states, setting down roots in areas where central
governments no longer exercise a clear monopoly of arms or jurisdiction. From
Pakistan to Iraq to Mali, adherents of the global jihadi movement are seeking a
safe haven to set up training camps, plot terror attacks, and spread their
fundamentalist ideology.
In Israel's neighborhood, at least two local
regions are prime al-Qaeda growth areas: Syria, which is in the midst of a
full-blown civil war, and Egypt's Sinai peninsula, a partially lawless desert
province where local Bedouin tribes enjoy more power than Egyptian security
forces.
In both areas, all indications suggest that
al-Qaeda-affiliated forces are setting up shop.
In Syria, jihadi fighters are pouring in from
neighboring countries such as Iraq (thereby reversing the traffic flow of
al-Qaeda fighters a decade ago). They are mixing with local recruits to form terror cells in Syria;
these have imported Iraqi-style roadside bombings on the
Syrian army and vehicle bomb attacks on Syrian government installations.
The Free Syrian Army routinely denies the
presence of al-Qaeda elements in Syria; admitting otherwise would serve the
propaganda efforts of the embattled Assad regime.
The Syrian regime is keen on presenting all
Syrian rebels as fanatical jihadis. Despite the politicized accusations by the
regime and denials by the rebels, al-Qaeda is gradually establishing itself in
Syria; the Israel Defense Force assumes that sooner or later the jihadis will
turn their sights on Israel.
The IDF's Northern command recently took
journalists on a tour of the Golan Heights and presented a few of the
preparations underway by the Israeli military to ensure readiness for the new
threat.
Despite Syria's hostility to Israel and its
rhetorical and logistical support for the largest terrorist organization in the
Middle East, Hizbullah, the border between Syria and Israel has been free of
hostile action since the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
Now, however, as Damascus loses sovereignty and
jihadis gain room to maneuver in Syria, this may change. Possible threats
include bomb and shooting attacks on the border, and the possibility of rocket
fire into northern Israel.
Meanwhile, in the south, al-Qaeda's presence in
Sinai is already well-established. Last month, global jihadi terrorists
attacked an Israeli Ministry of Defense border construction crew erecting a
barrier on the border between Egypt and Israel. The attack claimed the life of
a crew member. The terror cell was quickly met by an IDF unit, which shot dead
two members, as other terrorists retreated into the sand dunes on the Egyptian
side of the border.
The terror cell, exploiting weapons that are
hidden in caches in Sinai, used a combination of explosives, a rocket-propelled
grenade, and machine guns. Some of the weapons were, and are, entering the area
from Libya.
A Sinai-based al-Qaeda-affiliated organization,
saying it was behind the incident, released a video on YouTube (since removed);
it featured several masked men standing in front of a global jihad flag. Two of
them identified themselves as Saudi and Egyptian nationals.
"To the Jews, enemies of God, know you
infidels that what is coming is different from what came until now," one
of the masked men said.
The presence of global jihadi fighters in Sinai
is made more complex by the network's having members operating in the
neighboring Gaza Strip, ruled by the Hamas regime.
It is easy to imagine how one attack can set
off a wider conflict, as occurred in June, after the border attack, when the
Israel Air Force bombed an al-Qaeda mastermind in Gaza. In response, Hamas
fired over 160 rockets into southern Israel, a reaction that prompted further
Israeli airstrikes on Hamas targets.
Hamas, for its part, has no problem with
al-Qaeda launching attacks on Israel from Sinai, but it does have a problem
with al-Qaeda challenging its rule in Gaza. In 2009, Hamas ruthlessly enforced
its jurisdiction in Gaza, sending hundreds of gunmen to the south of the Strip
to put
down an al-Qaeda inspired movement that challenged Hamas rule .
Since, then al-Qaeda has been gravitating
towards Sinai, where the Egyptian military is struggling to maintain security.
Days before the border attack, two long-range rockets were fired from Sinai,
landing north of the Israeli tourist hub of Eilat.
The IDF's Southern Command, taking full note of
the changes washing over the southern border, has been strengthening the army's
presence in the area.
The construction of the border fence, together
with a host of advanced surveillance measures, and the creation of
rapid-response counter-terrorism units, are all included in the IDF's new
deployment along the southern border. Intelligence efforts are focused on
mapping out the widening terror network in Sinai.
Al-Qaeda's increasing shadow on Israel's
borders may result in a rewriting of counter-terrorism doctrines. At present,
al-Qaeda is the only terror network operating in the area with an absolute
commitment to launching constant, immediate attacks.
Unlike Hamas, Islamic Jihad, or Hizbullah,
al-Qaeda has no obvious return address and no territorial hold, making it that
much more challenging for Israeli security forces to identify and respond to
this emerging threat.
Related Topics: Israel
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