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

[HermioneWeasley]

a Muslim academic has said this -

“In the pamphlet, which has been seen by The Spectator, Ahmed writes that “the Muslim community as a whole in Britain needs to recognise that western education is a threat to our beliefs and values”.

Does this mean that the opposite is true? That sharia law is a threat to western values?

Jason Arday colleague called western education a threat to Islam
www.thetimes.com/article/8fa7a88d-ca07-4e60-9eef-454786bb3fcc?shareToken=30eb0c406a378da42e737d3c00a55468

What is your AIBU here?

Huh?

obviously.

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

I’m not sure how this is a question?

Is he not an academic in a western education setting?

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?

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.

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.

Sharia law. Naan bread. Chai tea.

All tautology. #pedant

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

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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...

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

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

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?

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...

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

The purpose of a humanities education is to expose students to ideas and enable them to think critically about them. That means allowing the expression of all ideas so students can decide for themselves. Universities have a duty to promote free speech, not close down debate. It is self-evident that the liberal values taught through a western education are in conflict with the teachings of the more radical forms of Islam. 'The Times', and to a lesser extent 'The Spectator', like to trash universities, branding them bastions of so-called wokery. This academic's words are a gift to them but she's really not saying anything remarkable.

Typo

If I may try to out-pendant you:

There’s no language in which those are tautologies. So are they really tautologies?

Sharia is a word in English and it doesn’t mean law. Naan in English doesn’t mean bread, etc.

Very simple, don't live where western education is delivered then.
The Quran makes it very clear that Muslims living outside of the Isalmic sphere are required to follow the laws of the host country, so this commentator is directly rejecting what is taught in the Quran.

Isn't she living proof to the contrary? Her education didn't cool her fervour in the least, so what's the problem? Why does she think she speaks for the Muslim community as a whole, anyway?

On a systemic level yes education is a threat to fundamentalist beliefs everywhere. Which is exactly why she wants that changed presumably.

And I know Saudia Arabia doesn't count but sharia didn't stop them from bombing Yemen for almost a decade. Nor did it stop other majority Muslim countries like Sudan, Jordan, Bahrain or Qatar..

Sacked for what though? (As there are a few different bits of the story).

Certainly not for arguing that Western education is/isn’t compatible with Muslim values.

Hypocrisy is not a sackable offense but surely pulling down a handsome salary in Cambridge ought to be against her religion?