Religious extremists are indoctrinating pupils and undermining British values, according to the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills, Ofsted.
LondonThe head of Ofsted, Amanda Spielman said: “Ofsted inspectors are increasingly brought into contact with those who want to actively pervert the purpose of education.
“Under the pretext of religious belief, they use education institutions, legal and illegal, to narrow young people’s horizons, to isolate and segregate, and in the worst cases to indoctrinate impressionable minds with extremist ideology.
“Freedom of belief in the private sphere is paramount, but in our schools it is our responsibility to tackle those who actively undermine fundamental British values or equalities law.
“Rather than adopting a passive liberalism, that says ‘anything goes’ for fear of causing offence, school leaders should be promoting a muscular liberalism.
“It means not assuming that the most conservative voices in a particular faith speak for everyone — imagine if people thought the Christian Institute were the sole voice of Anglicanism. And it means schools must not be afraid to call out practices, whatever their justification, that limit young people’s experiences and learning.”
Her warning comes after schools in Bradford made the wearing of the hijab compulsory for girls. A school in East London was moreover forced to back down due to a backlash from hardliners after it called for girls under-8 to not wear the Islamic headscarf.
“Giving way to the loudest voices is the opposite of tolerance,” she said.
The school’s decision to ban the hijab – on the grounds that Islamic teaching did not require girls to wear it until reaching puberty – had provoked fierce criticism from local Muslim councillors and parents.
Spielman said that while many faith schools promote tolerance of religions, lifestyles and cultures, there is a difference between showing tolerance and respect for others and “privileging all belief above criticism”.
In November 2017 Spielman said Ofsted inspectors would question girls in primary schools wearing the hijab. More than a thousand academics, teachers and faith leaders expressed outrage and accused Ofsted of a “kneejerk, discriminatory and institutionally racist response”.
Arzu Merali, a columnist for Middel Eastern Eye, accused Spielman of “Islamophobia”.
“Muscular liberalism, which Spielman invokes in her support of the hijab ban at St Stephen’s school, is code for supremacism,” Merali complained.
“Thursday’s speech [by Spielman] was a statement of intent, a declaration of war, and a pre-emptive justification of the onslaught to come.”
Merali is one of the co-founders of the Islamic Human Rights Commission and co-authored its recent study Environment of Hate: The New Normal for Muslims in the UK .
Help us to produce more articles like this. FreeWestMedia is depending on donations from our readers to keep going. With your help, we expose the mainstream fake news agenda.
A new case of female genital mutilation discovered almost every hour in UK
Gruesome honour killing attempt shakes Germany
Joint allied statement against Russia after UK ignores OCPW convention
Pressure increases on Britain to explain strange 'Novichok' claims
One in three German primary schools report violence against teachers
British Labour Party gain Muslim areas in local elections
Geert Wilders calls for Robinson's immediate release
Almost half of Syrian migrants suffer from mental illness Dutch study shows
UK Counter Terrorism interviews 8-year-old
Erdogan wants to open Turkish high schools in France
Turkey condemns France's Senate for voting against veil
Radicalization: 16 members of French intelligence excluded since 2014
Lyon: Green mayor boycotts Christian celebration but launches mosque construction
Knife murder in Dresden was Islamic terror attack - Syrian jihadist arrested
Massive terrorist attack shakes Austrian capital Vienna
France: Worrying drop in educational level in 'difficult' areas
Young French Islamists dream about decapitation
Timms: Efforts to advance migrant education in Germany show no results
Death threats after professor says Islam and Judaism are 'sexually transmitted'
The EU ignores neutrality, provides funding to undermine political foes
Christophobic attacks are underreported in Swedish media
