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"There are weaknesses in the way young Muslims are educated about what their faith really requires," Rammell said.
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CAIRO, May 17, 2006 (IslamOnline.net) – The
British government has ordered an urgent review of university Islamic
courses on claims that young Muslim students were being exposed to
radical teachings, the Yorkshire Post reported on Wednesday, May 17.
"There are weaknesses in the way young Muslims
are educated about what their faith really requires," British
Higher Education Minister Bill Rammell said Tuesday, May 16.
Rammell said that there was evidence that
"narrow and unhelpful" interpretations of Islam were available
to many young people.
"There is a concern that the teachings which the
great majority of Muslims would want to stress about living in peace,
protecting the vulnerable, avoiding harm to others, are sometimes
sidelined."
The review will be conducted by Muslim scholar Dr.
Ataullah Siddiqui to make sure that courses were not restricted to
narrow interpretation of Islam.
He will also examine the nature of the spiritual
advice which students are exposed to on campus.
Siddiqui is a Senior Research Fellow at the Islamic
Foundation, Leicester, and Director of the Markfield Institute of Higher
Education.
He is also a Visiting Fellow in the Centre for the
History of Religious and Political Pluralism, University of Leicester.
Wrong-headed Influences
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The review will be conducted by Siddiqui, a Senior Research Fellow at the Islamic Foundation, Leicester.
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Rammell said that some students were exposed to what
he described as "wrong-headed influences" in the name of
religion.
"In particular, exposed to teachings that either
explicitly condone terrorism, or foster a climate of opinion which is at
least sympathetic to terrorists' motivation.
"I am worried about this, so are colleagues in
Government, so above all are Muslims that I have spoken to."
The minister also hit out at what he said demands by
some Muslim students to dedicate prayer rooms in university libraries
and re-arranging lectures to suit with the Friday prayers.
He claimed that such demands carried "big
dangers", calling for an open debate on the issue.
"The alternative is that we drift into a
position where some British Muslims begin to feel aggrieved because
their expectations are not being met and no-one is commenting that those
expectations are not appropriate for today's society.
"Pockets of discontent emerge, impressionable
young people become vulnerable to extremists and Muslims become less
integrated and more isolated."
A British government-backed study has concluded that
the Muslim minority in Britain faces some of the most acute conditions
of multiple deprivation.
The report said that Muslims were more likely than
any other faith group to be jobless and living in poor conditions, which
a leading Muslim activist blamed on Downing Street for only paying lip
service to Muslim social woes.
"The problem is firstly what is being done by
the government to alleviate this problem," Anas Al-Tikriti, the
former president of the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), told
IslamOnline.net on Tuesday, May 16, over the phone from London.
Britain is home to a sizable Muslim minority
estimated at some 1.8 million people.
