Daily Archive

The “nuts” are out again . . . and this time, they even proudly term themselves that. The Telegraph:

Schools should refuse to circulate Army recruitment “propaganda” to impressionable young people, teachers have said.

They said schools were being “asked to play a partisan role in war” because some recruitment material targeted at children presented a skewed vision of life in the Armed Forces.

The National Union of Teachers said schools should have no part in recruiting troops unless lesson plans were more balanced…

Do the British forces recruit 11 year olds? We must have missed that lowering of the age. Yet while one type of “propaganda” is patently unacceptable, what might be termed another apparently is most welcome:

Muslim clerics and other faith leaders should be sent into state schools to teach children about religion, according to a teachers’ union.

Pupils should also be given the time and facilities to pray during the school day, it said.

The system drawn up by the National Union of Teachers would replace traditional religious assemblies - which must be broadly Christian - as part of a radical overhaul of faith-based education in England…

…Steve Sinnott, the NUT’s general secretary, said: “You could have imams coming in, you could have the local rabbi coming in and the local Roman Catholic priest. If there were opportunities where they all talked together to the youngsters, what a fantastic example that would be.”…

It’s bad enough that they actually think they also merit a ridiculous 10 percent pay rise, when as the immediately above shows us, they are clearly looking to pawn off some of their work on others.

That aside, it’s hard to believe Muslims might not overwhelmingly concur with the idea of their clerics being sent into classrooms in what are almost entirely non-Muslim schools where even the term “Christmas” creates terrible anxiety for administrators and teachers, and the Bible is considered a work of pure fantasy. For while Christians increasingly shrink from the public square, fearful of even being perceived as making non-believers momentarily uncomfortable, Muslims are more than happy to spread their word at any available opportunity. The latter seem far more likely to assert that non-believers simply should come to believe . . . and that is how they then won’t feel uncomfortable.

And that’s entirely Muslims’ right, of course. However, this is also the likes of what Mr Sinnott feels, if discussed by under 18s in mostly non-Muslim majority classrooms, would be “fantastic” and bound to build bridges:

In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.

“47.1″: (As for) those who disbelieve and turn away from Allah’s way, He shall render their works ineffective.

“47.2″: And (as for) those who believe and do good, and believe in what has been revealed to Muhammad, and it is the very truth from their Lord, He will remove their evil from them and improve their condition.

“47.3″: That is because those who disbelieve follow falsehood, and those who believe follow the truth from their Lord; thus does Allah set forth to men their examples.

“47.4″: So when you meet in battle those who disbelieve, then smite the necks until when you have overcome them, then make (them) prisoners, and afterwards either set them free as a favor or let them ransom (themselves) until the war terminates. That (shall be so); and if Allah had pleased He would certainly have exacted what is due from them, but that He may try some of you by means of others; and (as for) those who are slain in the way of Allah, He will by no means allow their deeds to perish…

Among those NUTs (the National Union of Teachers: never did a teachers’ union have a more apt acronym), one has to wonder how many have actually read any of the Koran? Military career information aimed at young adults is a supposedly moral “no-no”. However, “impressionable“, intellectually far more vulnerable 11 year olds discussing the Koran is apparently just terrific, even if it might well in its own realm also be considered rather “forceful” at times.

Comparative religious study is, overall, best handled at university-level and beyond. Under 18s belong only in religious settings vetted by their parents. If I had a young child in a purportedly non-denominational school who came home to tell of the wonderful imam (and who might well be a very nice man, seriously) who will regularly be visiting with their class, she would be moved to a Catholic school so quickly it would make administrators’ heads spin.

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If you want to really allow yourself to be made “angry”, read the World’s Greatest Newspaper Daily Express version. But remember also, anger is not a good thing.

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UPDATE: March 26: Pub Philosopher:

…On Easter Sunday, Channel 4 showed a programme which questioned some of the New Testament and many of the church traditions about the events which followed the death of Jesus. It was an interesting film and, although it upset some Christians, the questions it asked were reasonable. But would such a programme have been made about the Koran, asking similar questions about who actually wrote it and when?…

Apparently, some NUTs must think so.