By Hussein Al-alak, The Iraq Solidarity Campaign
Special to PalestineChronicle.com
Whilst Christians, Sunni and Shi’ite in Iraq face the persecution of British foreign policy and Palestinians look back over the past forty years as refugees, the UK Department for Education has now declared that “Islam in English universities is based on "out-of-date and irrelevant issues", according to the BBC on Monday, 4 June 2007.
The “study” was commissioned by the government DEF and carried out by an alleged academic Dr. Ataullah Siddiqui, who claimed in the report that what Islam needed was "a major shift of focus" from "an Arab and Middle Eastern perspective to that of a plural society in Britain".
The BBC also reported that Higher Education Minister Bill Rammell, “added that Dr Siddiqui’s review, as well as other reports and conferences on Islam in higher education, suggested Islamic studies departments were concentrating too much on a Middle Eastern focus and ignore the realities of Islam in modern multi-cultural Britain.”
According to one student Ataullah Parkar, of Birmingham University, "If someone is doing Islamic studies at university, we say they are doing Satan studies," This is because it is often taught by lecturers who are not Muslim and who tend to have views which are not accepted by the majority of (British!) Muslims, he claims.
The Government is now allocating an extra £1m, to be invested in a sectarian campaign, by allocating public money for the alleged training of Imams etc, whilst making sure the Eastern heritage of the Abraham religions are degenerated to suit a pro-Labour Party fashion.
Those who are supporting this process, appear to be ignoring the realities of this “modern multi-cultural Britain”, where one million pounds could actually save elderly people’s lives, pay for doctors and nurses and house entire families.
Within the first year of the illegal Iraq invasion, an estimated 22,000 British elderly people died as a result of the cold, whilst the Department of Work and Pensions published the fact that some "2.2 million pensioners were living below the poverty line”.
The average allowance for a twenty-four-hour home care worker, such as a relative, receives from the government around £45.50 per week, saving the country a staggering "£660 million" a year through unclaimed carers benefits.
According to the Carers Association UK, financial difficulties faced by carers do result in damage to the carers’ health, with carers being "twice as likely to develop mental health problems if they provide substantial care". In 2005, a reported "316,000 carers in the UK" described themselves as being either "permanently sick or disabled."
Meanwhile, the homeless charity Shelter are petitioning the Labour Government in response to an estimated “3.4 million children in the UK” currently living in poverty, whilst an estimated “one in 10 children” are still living in overcrowded conditions, which is enough to “fill the new Wembley Stadium 10 times over.”
Shelter have also reported that “27 per cent of overcrowded families have children sleeping in living rooms or dining rooms”, with added reports claiming that these conditions are making “our children ill and robs them of a decent education.”
At present, to even attend university in the UK means that each student has to pay “tuition fees”, a yearly fee which was introduced to University education by the Labour Party, unlike the previous Conservative Government where all education was provided for free.
The “study”, was published as the out-going Prime Minister Tony Blair prepared to give a speech on the importance of "British Muslims in London" but before the West and British Muslims decide to change the origins of Islam, they should each take note of Michel Aflaq, who “In memory of the Arab Prophet” of 1943 wrote:
“Everything that Islam has achieved in victories and culture was in the germinal stage in the first twenty years of the message.”
“Before the Arabs conquered the lands, the Arabs had conquered themselves and penetrated into the innermost of their souls. Before they governed nations, they governed themselves and controlled their passions and were in possession of their wills.”
-Mr. Al-alak is a regular contributor to PalestineChronicle.com
