LONDON, April 19 (IslamOnline.net) – Eton College, which has taught 18 British Prime Ministers, is to become the first public school in Britain to appoint an imam to promote an understanding of Islamic culture and thought, press reports said Monday, April 19.

"The relationship between the West and the Islamic world is likely to be one of the dominant issues for our boys for the years to come. To be effective citizens they will need a sound understanding of Islamic culture," said Tony Little, the headmaster of the Berkshire school.

The 1,290 pupils in the school will have the opportunity to learn Arabic as a language for the first time from this September to increase better understanding of the Muslim world, according to The Daily Telegraph.

Little, the headmaster of the Berkshire school, has written to parents to reassure them that the school will remain an Anglican, Christian school, the paper added.

The imam, who is a trained Muslim scholar will also attend to the needs of around 20 Muslim pupils who attend the exclusive £21,000 a year school.

Changing

The appointment of Oxford graduate Monawar Hussain has already been supported by many who say it is a positive initiative on behalf of Eton and a sign that many traditional British institutions are changing, said the Telegraph.

The school currently has a Roman Catholic chaplain and a Jewish tutor as well as its four Anglican priests caring for the spiritual well-being of its 1,290 boys aged 13 to 18.

The appointment has been funded by the London-based Karim Rida Said Foundation, founded in 1986 to promote better understanding of Islam in the West.

The charity worth some £22 million, also runs projects in Syria, Iraq, Jordan, the Lebanon and Palestine educating and aiding disadvantaged Arab children.

The step hit a new improvement in relations between the government and the British charities, which have faced a thrust of accusations of fundraising for terrorism and government pressures to keep them at bay.

It also came after calls for the government to do more to foster a secure, strong sense of a British Muslim identity other than failed prescriptions, after police arrested  eight men, all British citizens of Pakistani descent, in a new anti-terror sweep last month.