Muslim academic at Cambridge says Western education is a threat to Muslim values

No. She is an academic making an argument. One which In would say is true. As is the reverse.

I'm a Muslim, and these people don't and can't speak for the entire Muslim community. These people seem to be from Hizb-ut Tahrir, an organisation most Muslims don't associate with due to their strict, and often, black and white approach.

Western education as a whole is not a threat to Islam - our religion encourages seeking knowledge wherever it is, asking questions, being curious about the world, and to educate ourselves - science, literature, art, medicine...education is considered an act of worship.

However, I do agree that, as Muslims, we can't get on board with any kind of "education" that tries to indoctrinate us into believing things that don't align with what our religion teaches us. Most of us don't see forcing ideologies upon people as education anyway...

I’d be interested to read what she wrote, if you have a copy.

It seems she is/was a head teacher and develops curriculum materials. That seems much more of a concern than being an academic.

(I think we should have a much wider margin of what we think academics should be allowed to argue for than what schools should be allowed to teach).

But, I am curious: if you think it should be unacceptable to endorse child marriage in schools (I’m kind of with you on that), do you think Muslim schools should be banned from teaching that Muhammad was and is the perfect example for mankind? (As he entered into a child marriage). If they are banned from teaching that, to what extent are they really Muslim schools?

Agreed. Muslim parents can choose to send their kids to a Muslim school, just as Catholic, Church of England, Hindu, Sikh, Jewish schools exist.

a) this has what to do with Jason Arday?
b) sharia law is not the ‘opposite’ of western education.

What a shame she's trapped in the UK and can't go and live somewhere that will be a better cultural fit for her and her family.
Oh, hang on...

I suppose if you’re raising Muslim kids, Muslim
parents are going to worry about their kids drinking alcohol etc.

Most Muslim families raise their kids with both Islamic and British values.

She wrote the article in 2002, you make it
sound like she wrote it yesterday.

And there she is… taking her salary from the elite institution of Western Education.

Where free speech is (supposedly) a cornerstone

What’s that quote about the folly of the tolerant tolerating the intolerant?

She criticised British schools for teaching pupils that child marriage is wrong.

These statements are part of her long record of bigoted, extremist and separatist views on education.

This is “boko haram” - western culture is forbidden and the terrorists in West Africa who belong to this extreme form of Islam have committed terrible atrocities especially towards Christians. That a “respected” academic at Cambridge (not the disgraced Arday) could publish this, which she did, is very dangerous. I hope the university deals with her firmly and quickly, so she can’t influence impressionable students with her vile ideas.

Sharia is not the law in any European country.

And no non Muslim person is obliged to obey it or live by it.

Muslims are free to engage or swerve Western education.

She should be sacked. She’s a threat to our country.

Sharia law. Naan bread. Chai tea.

All tautology. #pedant

Counterpoint: then again UAE did stop sending its students to the UK because it was worried about the Islamist influence.

So maybe if you look at the effect rather than the professed values, the answer changes.

Yes certainly it is. At least to many mainstream Muslim values.

I don’t think she’s done anything wrong by believing or saying that. Just as I don’t think a Christian or Hindu, etc., professor who said the same about their religion would have done anything wrong.

The Times is a bit unclear on what aspect raises questions about Cambridge’s vetting processes. Writing for a proscribed group? Arguably. The test would be how would they treat a professor who wrote for a proscribed Irish republican or Catalan etc group. Holding and expressing those beliefs? Of course that’s not crossing a line. How on earth could you do philosophy or theology or any serious enquiry if you weren’t allowed to acknowledge any tensions, or support anything other than the current orthodoxy.

But in a Christian based education, law, religious, calendar, everything based society. Not learning that society's laws, educational tenants is basically stupid.

And what would he have the entire UK/European/Western World do, change the education system of the majority to match the minority view.

Personally I feel that only the history of the 1950s is important, so am I right no one should be taught anything else?

Is he not an academic in a western education setting?

Huh?

obviously.

Muslim sharia law is not the same as Christian-based law codes.

I’m not sure how this is a question?

What is your AIBU here?