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Report On The Teaching Of Islam In Universities
by Barnabas Fund
A recent government report on how Islam is taught in British universities signals another step towards the Islamisation of Britain and its education system. It was launched by the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, at the opening of the “Islam and Muslims in the World Today” conference sponsored by Cambridge University on 4 June 2007. Should this report be implemented, education will be handed over more and more to Muslims who will train and shape the next generation. This means a further move towards the establishment of Islam in the UK as a religion of state.
The report was initiated by Bill Rammell, Minister of State for Higher Education and Lifelong Learning in the Department for Education and Skills, DfES. Rammell appointed Dr Ataullah Siddiqui, Senior Research Fellow at the Islamic Foundation, Leicester and Director of the Markfield Institute of Higher Education linked to it, to write the report.
It is well known that the Islamic Foundation is an Islamist institute founded by high ranking members of the Pakistani Islamist party, Jama’at-i Islami. However, in answer to questions in the House of Commons about possible links between Ataullah Siddiqui and Jama‘at-i-Islami, Rammel stated that “Dr Siddiqui has assured me categorically that he has no links to the Jamaat-e-Islami Party”. He also stated that neither the Islamic Foundation nor Markfield had any organizational links to Jama‘at-i-Islami. This reveals that Rammell does not understand how Islamists use dissimulation (taqiyya) to hide their real goals while claiming to be moderate and liberal.
Some of the report’s recommendations:
- Universities should employ Muslim scholars to teach Islamic theology: “Students should be given the opportunity to learn from competent traditionally trained Islamic scholars in at least those parts of the syllabus that directly inform everyday practice of Islam”.
- All universities must employ Muslim chaplains or advisers to deal with the growing number of Muslim students on campus. More prayer rooms for Muslims should be provided.
- Islamic Student Societies should be better recognised and encouraged.
- Universities should cooperate with Islamic schools and colleges (dar al-ulum) to break down the divisions between British society and the Muslim community. Universities should help madrassas and dar al-ulum because they play a key role in Muslim communities and in the training of future community leaders. They need a formal link to higher education qualifications.
- Islamic studies should be linked to job opportunities such as teaching, chaplaincy and Islamic banking.
- Universities should provide add-on modules in Islamic studies for all students.
- Guidance should be given to all universities on Friday prayers, Ramadan and halal food. All university staff should receive awareness training on Muslims and Islam.
An analysis of these recommendations reveals that the report is in fact asking for a privileged position for Islam in the universities. It would seem to aim at transforming Islamic studies in Britain into a Muslim monopoly, a Muslim enclave in which the vast majority of staff and students are Muslim. It is implied that non-Muslim scholars cannot teach Islam because they do not unquestioningly accept its basic premises regarding the revelatory nature and divine authority of Qur‘an and hadith. Should these premises be accepted, the teaching faculty will be limited to traditional Muslim and Islamist lecturers. It is most likely that censorship will develop as to the suitability of the staff; the teaching methods and the acceptable subjects for research and publication.
Islamists have long argued for an Islamisation of all Western academic studies by the introduction of basic Islamic concepts into all branches of knowledge. The aim is to expand Islamic domination into all spheres. The whole system of Western academic education must be recast and remoulded on Islamic lines as it is tainted by Christian and pagan influences.
The strengthening of Islamic student societies furthers this aim of Islamisation. Islamic student societies tend to follow radical Islamist and Wahhabi ideology. They usually take strongly anti-Western and pro-Islamist stands on most issues, including anti-Semitic views that regard all Jews as enemies of Islam. Many Muslim students are radicalised during their student years by these societies.
Implementing these recommendations, as the government has promised to do, will inevitably narrow the scope of university Islamic studies and make them more intolerant and radical. Academic freedom of expression will be limited. Once fully Islamised, there would be little scope for free questioning, doubt and argument, the keys to real advances in knowledge. Muhammad and the Qur’an will be out of bounds as far as questioning their authority and historical development is concerned. This would be an alarming departure from established academic principles of disinterested inquiry. British institutions will come to resemble the sorry state of affairs in Islamic universities in the Muslim world. These are described by Shabbir Akhtar, a well known British Muslim academic and author, who taught for three years at the International Islamic University of Malaysia. As a result of his experiences there, he is now opposed to Islam as a political ideology. The attitude of the Malaysian uni versity authorities was that the West is a wicked enemy of Islam, and true Muslims have nothing to learn from the Western academic scholarship as God has already revealed the whole truth in Islam. Akhtar experienced how in Islamic universities, students and faculty alike are obsessed with the defence of Islam against Western Christian and secular liberal paradigms. They had no sense of history and unquestioningly accepted all Islamic theological dogma and claims. 
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