July 14, 2008

A Window Into What Islamic Youths in the UK Are Being Taught - In the Words of One Such Youth

We often discuss what's going in Islamic schools in the UK, but rarely do we have a view of it from one of the students. What are Islamic youth there being taught to believe? Two comments came in last month, evidently from a 14-year-old Islamic boy named Samir, living in England. According to a plugin I run (the ip2nation plugin for the ExpressionEngine blog engine), the ip address is indeed from the UK. I'm still thinking about these comments.

First comment:

You all do not understand Islam. It is very gentle, kind, non politics religion of peace and loves. Media tells lies about muslims. Muslims love Allah and he sees that they loves him, he helps them to get better in life and makes muslims get good house and jobs in Kafir countries.

In uk muslims even dont haf to work for allah provides money from government benefits. They efen can wer their own cloths without problems, but burka sometimes little problem in schools and places like this.

Allah has made muslims strong in west, and he is teaching kafir leaders how to respect ALL religion but most of all ISLAM.It is allahs will that ALL countries will become muslim, and one day there will be enuf muslims to take over all europ.When this happens you will see how good it is to be muslim, for allah will take alcohol away and immorals who go with own sex will be executed, no music or dancing except Islam music. Everybody will then say to Allah Thank you, we did not understand how good it is to be muslim.

I tell you all there is no reason to be afraid of Islam, just accept and see how allah will change your lifes.

peace to you all Allua Ackbar

Second comment, posted within an hour of the first:

Sorry forget to say I am 14 only but already I no the way to be happy without trubles. If only everybody see with my eyes, it is so sample if you just bleve what allah says. No body want to go hell so sample thing is just trust allah and the prophet mohammed (pbuh). One thing for shure is if you try verry hard to do good, allah will try his best to take you to paradise with servants there to serve you, and wine to. If anybody want to here about islam I will be happy to tell them.

peace to evry country samir

It's a very revealing set of comments. First of all:

In uk muslims even dont haf to work for allah provides money from government benefits.

Rather than seeing welfare as a safety net for those temporarily out of work, Samir sees welfare as a benefit from Allah so that Muslims don't have to work at all. Is Samir aware that the government benefits come from taxes paid by working Brits? His teachers surely are. It appears that, if not Samir himself, then most likely his teachers, see the welfare payments as tribute paid by a public, subservient to Islam, which works hard so that Muslims in the UK don't have to.

This suggests that in the UK, welfare is a factor that operates powerfully against assimilation of Islamic populations into the broader UK culture. In successful western cultures the need for money forces immigrant populations to assimilate so as to get along with their neighbors, work for them and with them, and make a living. It appears, on the evidence of Samir's comment, that this may not be operational in the UK today.

Also, the comments provide multiple examples of something which has been identified as a characteristic of Islamic teaching - specifically, a tendency to argue in favor of two contradictory things at the same time. Samir says that Islam is a "very gentle, kind, non politics religion of peace and loves." At the same time, he believes that Islam will force people to stop drinking, outlaw music and dancing, and 'execute' gays.

Samir says that Islam is a "non politics religion", and at the same time argues that "Allah has made muslims strong in west, and he is teaching kafir leaders how to respect ALL religion but most of all ISLAM," and says that "one day there will be enuf muslims to take over all europ."

He says that "When this happens you will see how good it is to be muslim," and "Everybody will then say to Allah Thank you, we did not understand how good it is to be muslim." This presumably does not apply to the gays who have been "executed."

His repeated use of the term "kafir" is also notable, since it is a derogatory term, i.e. a term that is "expressive of low opinion." Per Wikipedia:

In cultural terms, it is seen as a derogatory term used to describe an unbeliever, non-Muslims, apostate from Islam and even between Muslims of different sects.

To summarize, this appears to be a window into the Islamic teaching of at least one Muslim youth in the United Kingdom. Samir is being taught that:

• Islam is a peaceful religion that is not political.
• Islam will take over all of Europe.
• Islam will outlaw music, dancing, and drinking, and will execute gays.
• Islam will force non-Muslims to become Muslim.
  

If the United Kingdom wishes to protect its citizens, it must put an end to schools that teach that Islam requires Muslims to take over Europe, enforce Islamic law, and kill non-Muslims.