Quote Originally Posted by Exiletyke View Post
All part of welding together a multi faith community for the kid's benefit, not their parents. If they don't like that, I invite them to go to another college. When they see the learning as enabling their kids to better function with other people in the world of work, most parents are happy to compromise. Good on this school for standing their ground.
For all your good intentions rp & welding together a multi faith community do you see any change in the attitudes of Muslims in our society as a whole because I don't & you managed to steer your way through your post by avoiding saying who you are actually talking about
I visited Dubai a couple of years ago & went into a Mosque & was stood behind a young English couple & the young lady took off her headscarf
It took about 30 seconds for a "guard" to take her outside to be "schooled" on putting it back on if she wanted to re enter
Not much tolerance there Their country their rules Consequently I have decided not to visit Dubai again
It seems to me that we as a nation are the ones who happily change our rules to suit others[/QUOTE]


I thought, by identifying our issues with Black African and Caribbean Christian communities who we have found carry many strong homophobic viewpoints, that I was identifying exactly who I was talking about. Apologies that this wasn’t clear. The Muslims in our college tend not to be more conformist to ‘British Values’ but I think that they tend to be more integrated into the wider community around this part of East London whereas the local Black African and Caribbean communities are quite insular in their embedded communities. Which I think is a problem with Asian communities in Rotherham and many communities where ‘ghettos’ have been allowed to develop.

You’re quite right not to re-visit a country that is not in-keeping with your values. My wife (quite a strong feminist) felt the same about an area of Egypt she visited. We won’t go back there.

You may be misreading what I am saying. Like the school in the article, we promote acceptance of all cultures and ways of life in our Country, but on proviso that they accept and tolerate the views and feelings of others. We try and educate and challenge around all common prejudices and unfortunately that conflicts with beliefs of the parents. But we are preparing their kids for the real world, where all kinds of people exist and where such prejudices are not accepted by law in this country. The kids, despite what their parents say, need to know this.

In this case, I am with the school and back them in their stance against this Muslim community. Kids need to know about and tolerate all faiths/no faiths, abilities, lifestyle choices as part of their curriculum and be ready for the wider world. A good school will not force stuff down their throats but raise the issues and encourage learners to explore them, have their views and hear contrary viewpoints. One kid in a session last week said that he viewed a person in the process of *** change to ‘no longer be human’. This was challenged by other kids quite well and that’s the idea. How far is he going to get in the real world with such embedded views? In my experience, parents when this is explained to them, accept and support what schools do.